All the Lights in the Sky
by mrcmc888
Summary: (AU- canon divergence) Two months after the JS incident, a threat to the entire multiverse looms large, and Fate Testarossa is called back together with the Striker girls in order to investigate. To protect their world, they'll have to go to Earth, claim the key to an ancient genocidal weapon before the enemy can, and...Become idols?
1. Prologue

**Foreword:**

In the past week or so, I've been having a bit of writer's block concerning my main Nanoha story, so I decided to try my hand at writing something else. This is an idea that's been floating around my head for a while, so I thought why not? It's not my main project, so updates will be slower than the Belka Trilogy, but I hope to write for this one every now and then.

Now, anyone who has checked out my MAL or Twitter would easily find out that Love Live is one of my favorite franchises ever. One night, I got to thinking, wouldn't it be cool if they were magical girls? The powers came first, the decision to cross them over with Nanoha came later. As I love the two series (because I am a major Yuri fan), I thought it would be awesome if they could be together in a fic.

Just like the Belka Trilogy, I plan for this to be reasonably long. If you prefer shorter fics, then that's okay. I understand that everyone has personal preferences, and it's not going to hurt my feelings one bit if you drop this story. It's also not going to hurt my feelings if you give me constructive criticism in the comments...in fact, I would prefer you do that. If I don't know how to improve, I can't grow.

That's enough about that. Enjoy the story.

-mrcmc888

* * *

They say that on the day the Saint was born, nine stars fell from heaven to prostrate themselves at her feet, and, finding themselves unable to return from whence they came, pledged to take up arms to protect her the rest of her life.

The truth about the Star Knights of the Shutran Guard is most certainly more mundane than that. However, nothing changes the fact that they were one of the most feared fighting forces of the late Belkan Unification Wars, and that they could singlehandedly turn battles in the favor of the Clanagan-Shutra alliance that ultimately ended more than a thousand years of universe-spanning conflict.

The red-and-black armored Shutran Guard was the elite personal fighting force of Klaus IV, Hegemon of Shutra, and in the early stages of the war performed quite admirably against the Sieglinde and Rehner forces. The Guard members were all female, trained from adolescence in the magical combat style of ancient Belka, and were the most powerful soldiers that the Hegemony could draw from the fifteen systems that were its constituents. However, It was not until the Hegemony entered into an alliance with the Kingdom of Clanagan, located in a backwater system known as Midchilda, and the Guard became the protectors of Queen Olivie of the Saegebrecht dynasty, that nine members would make their stunning magical power known to the former Belkan Empire, and to history itself.

As Shutran Guard members cast their real names off when they were knighted, the birth names of those who would come to be called the Star Knights had been lost to the ages, but the monikers the nine came to bear would be repeated around the dimensions for years to come.

They were the Shadow, who moved so quickly that it was impossible for opponents to even touch her, and could infiltrate an enemy camp and kill in the time it took to blink.

The Aegis, who could protect thousands with her shields and barriers, never faltering no matter how powerful the attacks loosed at her were.

The Lance, who with her spear could skewer hundreds upon hundreds of enemies, and who served as the chief strategist of the group.

The Healer, who was a gentle soul that, it was said, could return the dead to their bodies.

The Arm, who fought the death-machines of the Sankt Kaiser with nothing but her own hands and won.

The Flame, who burned with the intensity of a sun and could scorch the face of worlds until nothing remained.

The Soul, who, it was said, could speak to the plants and the animals, and who, it was said, could summon nature to do her bidding.

The Archer, who with her bow shot straight and true, and who could kill a man from the opposite side of the world.

And lastly, the knight who led the group, who was said to shine with the brilliance of a thousand sunrises and some days, to be as radiant as the Saint herself. Even though it was said she hailed from a noble family of the Saint's homeworld, there was not a man that she found suitable to wed, for she loved the thrill of battle far too much.

However, at times it would seem as if she was consumed by a certain disease, and her friendly demeanor would change to vengeful, and she would slaughter whole armies alone. Thus, she was called the Berserker Knight.

The effect the Star Knights had on the enemies of the Saint was undeniable. One of them would lead to an opposing army not pushing its attack. Two of them would lead to a sure white flag. Three of them would lead to entire armies routing just from the sight. Nine of them would make sure the opponents did not even have the time to give up.

It came near the end of the Unification Wars that the Star Knights faced their final battle. At the time, the Midchildan forces bore down on the kingdom of Yne, whose ruling Crozelig dynasty knew that defeat was imminent. However, they possessed a trump card of their own: the Gods' Eye, a moon-sized weapon said to date from the mythical civilization of Alhazard, which would implode the universe on itself, destroying it. The pride of the Crozelig was such that they would rather exterminate all life than allow themselves to lose.

No one knows how they did it, but the Saint and the Shutran Guard managed to invade the Gods' Eye without allowing it to be activated. However, it was not until she slew the Crozelig monarch that Olivie found out the truth about the key to the Gods' Eye: it was not an object. It bound itself to a human being, and when it was removed from its master, it began to cause dimensional alterations in the space.

Before the machine could go out of control and fulfill its horrible mission, however, the Saint fractured the ethereal key into nine pieces, and the nine who volunteered to sacrifice their lives in order to seal it away were the Star Knights.

Each bonded with a piece of the key, and the Saint sealed them away in a pocket dimension, in order to keep the Gods' Eye from ever being activated again.

Two weeks later, Olivie Saegebrecht would be dealt her fatal wound at Verbus, and the age of Ancient Belka came to an end. And in that pocket dimension, time refused to flow, and the knights simply ceased to be anything more than souls in an abstract reality.

When the Time-Space Administration Bureau grew to control the multiverse, the knights slept.

When a girl who would later change the fate of time was born, the knights slept.

When a book of untold power escaped the grasp of the TSAB for an unknown planet, the knights slept.

And when a woman, in her despair, attempted to reach Alhazard to return her long-dead daughter to her, the knights slept.

They would not sleep for much longer.

* * *

 _One year prior to the Jewel Seed incident_

The moon of Yne lay silent.

In the distance, a barren, craggy, gray landscape stretched to the horizon, and an inky blackness filled the space beyond. In the sky were hundreds of thousands of stars and clouds, nebulae, galaxies, and planets, filling the view with their colorful symphony.

On the ground, the only thing apart from the seemingly endless expanse of dust and craters was a large, smooth circular mound, seemingly out-of-place amidst the emptiness. The tip pulsed with a strange green light, as if it was a signal to stay away.

From the east, two objects appeared in the air, moving at a high rate of speed. As they dropped closer to the surface, the figures of two people in flight, one larger and one smaller, could be made out. They were clothed all in black; they almost seemed to melt away into the night. The only color on their bodies were the blood-red masks that covered their faces. The two passed over the hill and immediately slowed, becoming upright, then dropped near the oscillating light without making a sound.

The larger figure looked around. Now that he was closer, he could tell that what he thought to be a beacon from the air was a large circular seal, inscribed with runes around the perimeter and glowing from the energy contained within. Every so often, it appeared that the power became too much for the runic circle, which would send a brilliant green laser into the sky. So this was what the Gods' Eye was like.

The rod the smaller person carried in her hand lit a teal color, then buzzed. "That was the others," the voice of a mature woman announced, breaking the silence. "They'll be here within fifteen minutes. It's almost time."

The man's voice sounded higher and younger than his stature would suggest. "Are you sure they won't call our bluff? The TSAB, that is. What if they figure out we wouldn't be that stupid to carry out the plan?"

The woman laughed. "You give them far too much credit, Ullr. I have no doubt those idiots in charge of the Bureau have forgotten their history lessons. If we tell them we have a weapon that could wipe them out, they'll believe it. They'll turn the corrupt officials over to us like we want."

"What about these...what did you call them, Hretha, Star Knights?" The young man's tone was concerned. "Are you really sure they'll follow us?"

"Of course. We have the Saint with us, after all."

"The what?"

"You'll see in due time."

Almost as soon as Hretha said that, a set of feet touched the ground behind Ullr, then another, and another, and another. Within the minute, there were twelve people of various shapes and sizes surrounding the two, their magical Devices drawn, all dressed in the same black clothes and red masks. The young man was unable to see the face of his older partner. In his entire time as a part of the group that surrounded him now, he had never glimpsed the face of anyone else. Nonetheless, he was sure she was smiling under that blank red visage.

Hretha's voice broke the silence. "How did it go?"

A stocky man stepped forward. "We incapacitated the TSAB garrison before they had time to send for help. I was surprised there was such a small number guarding a site with such high importance as this."

The older woman began to pace around the circle, naming off the masked figures one by one. "Hoenir...Vidarr...Eir...Altur...Mani...Njordr...Saga...Ran...Hodr...Njorun...Freyja...Baldur..."

She had come to stand in front of her younger partner. "...Ullr..."

"...And I, Hretha."

"We begin," she announced, taking a position next to the glowing seal. "Tyr awaits in the inner sanctum. Come." She beckoned with her finger.

The first of the masked individuals stepped onto the seal and disappeared. One by one, they followed, until only the young man and his senior were left. Taking a deep breath, he strode onto the magic circle.

At once, a strange buzzing sensation filled his body, and he found himself in a circular, cavernous room, filled with a strange light. The walls of the cavern seemed to be every color at once and yet none at all, and shifted as he looked at them into shapes that he was sure weren't physically possible. It was starting to make him sick. He turned his gaze to the floor, making sure not to look at the walls again if he could help it.

From the others surrounding him, he heard a whisper say, "So this is what the inside of a planet looks like." He had no idea what they were talking about. There was no way this could be the core.

The floor of the cavern was gray stone, with several concentric circles carved every half- or quarter- meter, and several smaller circles overlaid over the larger ones. In each, a progressively more complicated incantation spread itself out in the runes, and the tongue, of Old Belka. At the center of the circles, a simple, small obelisk rose from the floor, and next to it stood a masked man, whose dark hair was long enough that it flowed out from behind his mask. He held the limp form of a small, blonde girl by the wrist; she didn't look to be much older than six.

Hretha strode toward him. "Is that the Saint you speak of, Tyr? Impressive."

The man answered, deep and smooth. "She is an unfinished prototype...I have yet to perfect the art of cloning. These eyes will never open. This mouth will never speak. But for this purpose, she is perfect."

"I'll leave it to you, then."

"I assure you, it will not fail."

Backing away, Hretha signaled the masked people to spread out. All of them complied, their Devices at the ready. Half of Ullr felt like running in terror, and the other half was excited beyond belief.

It was time for the ceremony to begin.

The masked man who had been called Tyr placed the hand of the girl over the stone obelisk in the center of the room. Slowly, he produced a long, sharp knife.

"Rise, knights of Shutra," he intoned. "Your master beckons."

In a single deft stroke, he sliced the arm of the child, and red blood dripped onto the stone of the obelisk. Almost immediately, it began to shine with a powerful light, spreading out, filling all the channels of the carvings on the floor. In front of the young man, runic inscriptions glowed.

The light grew so intense that he felt compelled to shield his eyes. He didn't know how many minutes it was, maybe two, maybe three, before it died down.

When he opened them again, he saw nine armored female figures, shimmering ethereally, in the space between Tyr, the immobile girl, and the rest of the masked group. They all appeared to be almost like glass; they were able to be seen through, but there was no doubt that they were there.

They had done it.

All around him, Ullr could hear the voices of his compatriots, whispering.

"That's them. It's the Star Knights."

"The Gods' Eye is ours."

"Saint be praised, I can finally find the TSAB official who sent my husband to his death. It is truly a miracle."

Slowly, hesitantly, Ullr saw Hretha step forward, as if to initiate contact with the forms.

As soon as she did, the shape of a dark-haired girl, the smallest of the knights, glowed violently and disappeared.

The voices of the masked group turned from happiness to surprise in barely an instant.

One by one, the Star Knights of Shutra were disappearing.

There was only one left, a tall, red-haired knight, who was looking straight at Ullr with mournful violet eyes.

Then she too vanished.

All around her, the masked group was frozen. Then Hretha spoke. "After them!" she screamed, and thirteen men and women in blood-red masks rushed toward the center of the cavern.

The sensation overcame him again, and Ullr found himself standing back on the surface of the moon of Yne with his compatriots.

The knights were nowhere to be found. Beside him, his senior was pacing, muttering. "I don't understand...we had this planned...how could it fail? Why would they reject us?"

Suddenly, one of the masks, a smaller figure, pointed to the sky and exclaimed, "What's that?!"

When Ullr followed his comrade's finger, what he saw stunned him.

Nine orbs of different colors in a perfect wedge formation were streaking across the night sky, just like the old myths said.

At that moment, he knew they were without a doubt the Saint's sworn guardians of old.

Then the nine lights shot upward, and were lost among the stars.

* * *

 _North of Lake Towada, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, Earth_

The lone lights on the Tohoku country road were the small blue sedan's headlights. A light rain drummed itself against the windshield, and the wipers beat it back.

Not much traffic came this way during the day. As late as it was, the woman's car was the only one on the road. Not that she minded; she had grown up in this area. She knew all the shortcuts from years of driving the family dairy farm's delivery truck. And it gave her much more time to think.

Earlier in the day, she had spoken at a teachers' conference in Aomori. When she got the invitation, she had been shocked that she would be regarded so highly; the woman had only become the principal of the Akita high school where she worked only two years ago, and she doubted she had the amount of experience to speak on the subject. Nonetheless, she had been invited, and had dutifully gone. It wasn't the best oration she had ever spoken, but it was serviceable. However, thanks to a deliberation over the zoning of the Aomori school districts, which didn't concern her but would be rude to leave in the midst of nonetheless, she was a good five hours later than she thought she would be. Even though the woman had taken the shortcut, she wouldn't arrive home until after midnight at the earliest. It was a good thing tomorrow was a Saturday.

As she rounded a curve smoothly, something flashed in the corner of her eye. She searched the sky, and out of her right window, saw a blinking white light skimming the trees of the countryside. She chuckled a bit to herself. It was just an airplane, but she liked watching them nonetheless.

A minute passed, then another. She continued to drive, but something was beginning to feel strange. The light was still right alongside, and it seemed like it had grown brighter.

 _Is it following me?_

After another minute, she looked only to find that the light seemed to be closer than ever. It was almost like someone was shining a flashlight through the window.

At that moment, she heard a strange, high-pitched noise, almost like a shrill chirp, then another, then another.

That was enough to force herself to pull over. She had no idea what was going on.

When she stepped out of the car, the woman knew something strange was going on. The voices of what seemed like a thousand birds: swallow, finch, thrush, warbler, heron, and more, were raised in unison, in the dead of night. There was no sun, yet they sang as if it was midday. Her heart was pounding so hard, the woman thought it might burst any second.

As the woman stood, rooted to her spot in awe, the light passed overhead, and she could see that it was not one, but four orbs, orange and green and lime and purple, all dancing in a circle, flitting about like fairies.

The wreath of lights was hovering directly above her, and their movements were hypnotic. She was terrified. She didn't know what she was seeing, but still the woman couldn't look away.

As she stood transfixed, the green light broke from the group and began to spiral downwards.

With a start, the woman realized that it was headed toward her.

Suddenly, everything became bathed in emerald light, and the cacophony stopped entirely. The only sound she could hear was her heartbeat pounding out a cut-time rhythm.

As she tried to process what was going on in her confusion and fear, the woman saw something that she would remember for the rest of her life.

Directly in front of her was the figure of a sleeping girl, arched backwards in midair, radiating what looked like a halo around her. Her ash-blonde hair fell down her back and wreathed her naked body. To the woman, she looked like an angel. She almost looked too familiar. It was unnerving.

As she stood, transfixed, the strange girl slowly turned upright and opened her eyes, and as soon as she did, all the color in the woman's face drained.

She knew what that sense of deja vu was now. Those delicate features, those two amber pools...

The woman was staring into the face of what could have been herself, ten or fifteen years ago.

Almost instantly, everything disappeared. The strange girl, the lights, the birds...it was if they had never been there in the first place.

Slowly, the woman heard the sounds of the Tohoku night coming back one by one, the babble of a stream, the cry of a cicada, the croak of a frog.

She sat on the ground beside her car, her mind blanking. She didn't know what to think. What had she seen? What were those lights? Who was that girl? Why her?

Slowly, the woman pushed herself to her feet. It was less than a meter to the seat of her car, but her body trembled more than it had ever done in her entire life.

 _Was I dreaming?_

She turned the ignition and pressed the pedal as hard as she could, hoping, praying, to leave that memory behind her, scrapped on the side of the road.

* * *

It wasn't until a month later, however, that the truly strange things began to happen. The woman woke up on a seemingly normal day, and fifteen minutes later found herself vomiting into the toilet. She called in sick that day, but by the afternoon she was fine.

It happened again the next day, and again, and again, and again, so she finally decided to go see the doctor.

In the past month, she was still thinking about the strange lights she saw often. She resolved to do research about it, and what she found shocked her.

The previous year, there had been five sightings of unexplained multicolored lights just like the ones she witnessed, four of them over Japan.

The first was a video on the internet where a man on the outskirts of Tokyo swore he had seen a UFO crash. On the news clip where he was interviewed, he was ranting hysterically, but he claimed to have witnessed nine orbs in a V-formation, and a pink light on the outside edge suddenly plunge into the treeline. When he went to investigate, there was nothing there.

There was a shaky picture of a dark purple light, so faint it could hardly be seen, falling out of a formation over Kagoshima, but in this case the woman could only make out eight lights. There was no pink orb with the formation.

Over Volgograd, Russia, a teal light had been observed circling the city before disappearing. It was the clearest of the sightings, but the other lights weren't present.

A blue light had left a formation of six and had dropped into the ocean just outside Chiba, but it did not disturb the water at all.

And lastly, barely a month before her experience, a brilliant red orb had been captured by cameras streaking over Chiyoda, passing the Imperial Palace.

As the woman sat in the cool doctor's office, she still knew about as little as she had when she had seen the flying object, and the strange girl, for the first time. All of those sightings seemed too much like what she had seen; the group of orbs, the one breaking formation...every part of that had happened to her.

The door to the examination room opened, and she went in. At least this would put all her doubts to rest; the doctor would tell her that nothing was wrong with her. She could put her harrowing experience behind her for good.

The tests went as routinely as possible, but near the end, the doctor pricked her finger. The woman wasn't completely certain, but she was pretty sure today wasn't the time when her annual blood-drawing was scheduled.

The doctor left the examination room. He was taking longer than he usually did.

Finally the door opened, and the old man in the white coat entered again, holding a clipboard. "Ma'am," he announced, "congratulations."

 _Congratulations?_

"What do you mean?" the woman replied.

"You should know," he replied. "You're pregnant."

The woman's mind immediately blanked. That had to be a mistake. It couldn't be true.

"That's...not possible," she replied shakily.

"How so?" the doctor asked.

"My husband's been dead for three years."

* * *

 _Four years later_

The woman stood outside the school that she would be working at, starting today, and thought back.

The teachers in her school at Akita were in an uproar when she had announced that she was going to have a child. It was somewhat of a scandal, a widow being pregnant by someone she didn't even know. But the other teachers didn't want to fire her; they all agreed that she was one of the best principals they'd ever had. They tried to get her to stay. They offered maternity leave, a pay raise, everything they could do. But she chose to resign. She had brought so much shame upon herself, it was the only honorable thing to do.

She had given birth to a healthy girl, who grew fast. The woman never wanted to go to work again, but her husband's life insurance, and the maternity leave the school provided, didn't last forever. So when one of her former coworkers in Akita told her about an open job at a school in central Tokyo, she reluctantly accepted it.

She didn't want to leave her daughter alone for such a long time. She was already a distant enough mother at it was when she was around the child every second of the day, but she had no choice. At least in a faraway place like Tokyo, no one would question the fact that she was a single parent.

That was how she ended up in front of the school in Chiyoda.

The surroundings were very beautiful, she had to admit. The amount of greenery surrounding the school almost made her forget she was in the center of one of the largest cities in the world, and less than a half hour from the electronic paradise of Akihabara, and the seediness of Ikebukuro. She had been told the school had been built by the British in 1921. It certainly looked that way.

She strode up the long sidewalk heading to the front door, with the cherry trees on either side occasionally dropping their creamy pink blossoms.

It was time to start her new life.

A short, balding man greeted her as she opened the front door. The hallways of the school were remarkably clean, she noted.

"Ah, you must be the new headmaster!" he exclaimed in the shaky voice of the elderly. "We're very happy to have you here."

They even called her headmaster instead of principal. It really did feel like stepped into fifty years ago.

"My name is Tomita. I'm the chair of the science department here. The other teachers are in the staff room, waiting on you," the older man said as they climbed the stairs to the second floor.

"Is the alumni association representative here today?" she asked the older man. "I talked to her about conducting a tour last week."

"No, Mrs. Kosaka has something to attend to. I wish she would tell us sooner...she's so spur-of-the-moment. My old bones can hardly keep up with her. By the way," he continued, "I heard you were very notable in Akita."

Her blood grew cold. If news of the scandal had reached all the way here...

"I don't know if I could say so. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, don't be modest," Tomita chuckled. "Your friend from your old school put in a good word for you."

The woman breathed a sigh of relief. It didn't look like her past would follow her all the way here.

"You have a daughter, don't you?" the old man asked.

"How did you know?"

"I happened to see you in the grocery store yesterday, with an adorable little girl. She looked just like you, so that's what I assumed," he answered. "I hope your move didn't affect her too much. It's hard for children that age to travel that far."

"No, she's adjusting fine," the woman replied. "She's just so shy...she didn't really have that many girls her age nearby that she could play with when we lived in Akita, and I was so busy with other things that she couldn't make friends. Whenever I took her out back home, she always clung to me. I hope that changes here."

"Well, you know," Tomita said, "I have a niece about your daughter's age. Maybe they could get along."

"Oh, really? What's she like?" the woman asked, as they came to the top of the stairs and continued down a long hallway lined with classrooms.

"Her name is Umi, like the sea, but I think what's funny is she hates water. She won't go swimming, and if she accidentally steps in a puddle she'll cry. She cries over everything. My sister's husband is the very traditional sort, and he's already trying to teach her to be a proper lady." Tomita chuckled. "It's not working."

"She sounds like my daughter would like her."

"I'll bring her by sometime. I take care of her when my sister and her husband are busy. He's a sixth-dan kendoka, and a pretty good archery teacher as well, and she's a Mai dancer, after all...they don't have a lot of free time, what with running dojos and all."

"Are they teaching her?"

"She's the only child, so she's the heir to both. She'll learn soon enough. I nearly burst out laughing every time I try to imagine her trying to swing a sword, or draw a bow, or do kabuki. She'll just keep tripping over her own feet."

The woman laughed politely. At least her daughter wouldn't be lonely here. She hoped.

Presently, the two had reached the door labeled "Staff Room." Tomita opened the door.

Collecting her breath, the woman strode into the room authoritatively. The eyes of every person in the room were on her. She had to make her first impression count. She took a second, then opened her mouth.

"My name is Mikoto Minami. I'll be taking over as the new headmaster from today. It's a pleasure to meet all of you."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES**

This is a prologue, just wanting to make that clear. The next chapters will have canon characters. I promise. I'm just using this to set up the main story, explain why the hell the TSAB would have anything to do with high school girls in Tokyo, etc.

So I plan to make some references to this fic in my Belka trilogy. For example, there the Star Knights still exist, but they're still sealed away.

Again, just a disclaimer, fic updates may be very slow. I hope you guys don't mind.

NicoMaki is my OTP, and Nico is best girl. 3

* * *

 **MAHOU SHOUJO LYRICAL NANOHA IS THE PROPERTY OF MASAKI TSUZUKI, SEVEN ARCS, NBCUNIVERSAL ENTERTAINMENT JAPAN, ANIPLEX, AND A-1 PICTURES, AND LOVE LIVE! SCHOOL IDOL PROJECT IS THE PROPERTY OF DENGEKI BUNKO, LANTIS RECORDS, BANDAI VISUAL, SUNRISE, BUSHIROAD, AND NIS AMERICA. I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING RELATED TO EITHER SERIES. PLEASE SUPPORT THE OFFICIAL RELEASES WHENEVER POSSIBLE.**


	2. The Secret Journey

"Stop struggling. You're only going to hurt yourself."

At no time earlier in the day did the two out-of-work mages think that they would be disarmed and placed in a Bind spell that could stop a fighter jet in midair all in under 4.75 seconds. Actually, the two would-be criminals didn't think they would encounter any Time-Space Administration Bureau agents at all. Both of them had worked at the power plant that provided energy to the world of Dunfors, 17th in the Roll of the Administrated Worlds of the TSAB, for years; although they were only floor technicians, both did their jobs well enough to stay employed for five years, in which both of the workers developed a friendship with each other, finding the addition of talking and laughing to be suitable enough to liven up the monotony of maintenance work, a dreary chore when performed on its own.

That was until the middle of the preceding month, when both were called into the boss's office, and summarily laid off without so much as an explanation. At first, both were shocked. They had both shown up on time every day and done everything that was expected; they had even worked overtime on multiple occasions. But neither of them could understand why they would be suddenly let go like that.

Then, the debt started to pile up. The telecalls and messages demanding the men pay for electricity, water, their mage registration, and so forth, started to pile up. The part-time jobs both had taken were not enough even to keep their houses. It seemed to be hopeless.

Then anxiety gave way to brooding, and brooding gave way to anger. Anger at the manager who had let the two technicians go without even bothering to explain, anger at their friends and family who did nothing to help them in their time of need, and anger at the world that had left them in such a sorry state, raining injustice after injustice down upon them as if they were simply cockroaches to be crushed under society's boot.

That was when the letter came. A simple telemessage, explaining what to do if they wanted to get back at the power plant that had fired them. At first they were shocked that someone could have discovered who they were and what they wanted, but after reading they began to agree with it more and more.

It was supposed to be simple enough. They would sneak into the facility at 4:30 in the morning, under the cover of night, when it was lightly guarded, place a magical charge, and blow the main turbine to bits. Then, they would sneak out with no one the wiser.

Maybe it was bad luck that at that exact time, staying in the nearest town no less than two farthings away was not only one of the most effective Enforcers of the TSAB Naval Executive Office, but a galaxy-known hero on top of it all.

The blonde woman in the black uniform, who was quite small in stature and had the hair in her Barrier Jacket pulled to the side in the manner of a girl's twintails, may have not looked intimidating, but the aura Major Fate Testarossa gave off was so powerful the two men would have wet their pants long before if they had any to let out in the first place.

Turning away from the harmless criminals, Fate deactivated her magical Device, Bardiche, and the black leather of her Barrier Jacket disappeared, being replaced by the more modest, but still dark, uniform of an Enforcer. Closing her eyes, she envisioned long tendrils growing from her mind, expanding, searching the area, until they found a younger, red-haired girl busy scouring the site of the explosion.

She began to think intently. _Teana. Teana, can you hear me?_

It took a second, but the voice of her subordinate, high but lacking its usual biting edge, rang out in her head. _There was a neural communications jammer active. I guess they were prepared for their plan to be discovered somewhat._

She might have not had the nicest temper, but Teana Lanster was one of Fate's former students and one of the most promising Enforcers she'd seen in all her ten years of service. Starting from a young age did have its advantages, Fate thought.

 _What caused the explosion?_ Fate asked.

 _Type 152-C military grade magical pulse mine. Remotely detonated._

 _How did they get their hands on that? They were grunt workers. They barely had the authorization to carry around a class A Device._

 _Beats me. Is the detonator with them?_

Fate turned around to ask the prisoners for the remote switch that set the mine off, only to find that both of them had passed out, either from hyperventilating or sheer terror. Fate sighed a bit. She wasn't used to receiving this kind of reaction, as if she was some sort of monster sent to consume the souls of those who did wrong. But like it or not, the JS Incident of three months ago had changed her image forever. No longer was she the military's best-kept secret; instead, Fate was a hero of the people, one who could expect to be mobbed and asked for autographs walking down the street. Maybe it would die down eventually. Fate sure hoped so herself.

Touching Bardiche's inactive form, Fate flicked her right index finger over the pulsing, yellow, triangular gem's surface, and a holographic screen appeared in front of her. On the screen was a mousy, bespectacled young woman who seemed to be more than a bit harried, as could be inferred from the stacks of haphazard papers strewn around her desk.

"Sharo, what's the information on these two?"

Her subordinate on the DSF _Envoy_ adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "Thorfinn Niedermayer, 28, and Fabian Birchner, 32. Former ground-level technicians at the plant, laid off a month ago when the administrators decided to cut costs. They didn't even get their Hastur's Day bonus."

"I see where they're coming from, then, but laws are laws. Get a prisoner transport for them."

"Yes, sir. On the double."

Fate's telecommunicator winked off, and to her right her junior officer gently alighted on the concrete. "Did you get them?"

"Yes...it was rather routine," Fate commented, occasionally flicking an eye back to her unconscious captives to make sure neither of them were playing possum. "I don't even know if we were needed for this. I mean, any base-level Enforcer could have done this without breaking a sweat."

"I don't mind," Teana mused. "It's so much more peaceful than... _that_."

Fate nodded her head in agreement. The JS Incident had been rather traumatic for most involved, but the fallout had been worse. Within days, the people that were rightfully angry at their homes, businesses, and even the lives of their loved ones being collateral damage from the mad scientist Jail Scaglietti and his cyborg Numbers' attempt to destroy Midchilda had organized into mobs. Stirred up by controversial media figures, they picketed TSAB offices by the hundreds, calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty and Scaglietti's trial as a traitor. Only a public plea for clemency from Lieutenant Colonel Hayate Yagami herself finally stopped them, and even then, the damage had been done for Fate and the people she was close to. The incident had thrown Fate, her two closest friends, and her beloved trainees, one of whom was Teana, into a limelight that they were simply unprepared for.

All of the sudden, Bardiche buzzed, and an image appeared on the telecom. Fate flicked her eyes downwards, expecting to see Sharo again, but the person on the screen was male, with piercing blue eyes framed in a high-cheekboned, stern face and the hair hanging over his forehead the same dark color as his dress uniform.

In seconds, she recognized him as Admiral Chrono Harlaown, her superior officer and her adoptive brother.

"Major Testarossa," he began. "Am I interrupting you?"

"No sir," she replied. "All threats have been neutralized."

"Then, I request your presence at headquarters, as well as Lieutenant Lanster. Three hours. Do not be late."

The telecom winked off. Urgent missions were nothing new, and Fate had experienced almost the exact same sequence of events several times. It should be routine. At least, she hoped so.

She tried to wipe the little bit of doubt from the back of her mind.

At least, she hoped so.

* * *

 _Training Facilities, Time-Space Administration Bureau Dimensional Navy Headquarters, Dimensional Space_

 _Fifty-seven- thwack. Fifty-eight- thwack. Fifty-nine- thwack. Sixty._

Teana Lanster's padded fist hit the side of the heavy bag for the last time in the day's session, and as she pulled her head upwards she could feel the rivulets of sweat running down her face and exposed midriff. She didn't particularly care for the slimy, runny feeling that always made her think she needed to wash off about fifteen times to prevent waking up with the acne she had fought so hard to keep in check as a middle school student all over her.

Still, the high of finishing the workout, and knowing she was improving, far outweighed the negatives. She even liked the soreness in her arms and back that became readily apparent after she finished; after all, it meant she had come a long way.

It was the sight of a rather cocky, and drunk, Enforcer getting knocked out in one hit by a naval officer that convinced Teana she needed to start working as hard on her fitness as the non-magical troops did. Because like it or not, the TSAB was rather lax in their physical requirements for mages, and if magic didn't exist, even the White Devil would be a weakling.

When she started her exercise regimen, she could barely run a mile without gasping for breath. But in only three months of training, she had done the same thing in under seven minutes, lost a whole percentage point of body fat, and thanks to the same officer she saw shut the arrogant Enforcer up, learned how to apply a triangle choke better than anyone.

She wasn't particularly naturally skilled or smart. Just like everything in her life, Teana had to work hard to obtain it.

But that just made the feeling of triumph sweeter.

As she wiped off with one of the towels around the naval headquarters' spacious gym, Teana could feel about four pairs of eyes on her. She didn't really care. She was interested in none of the midshipmen who came to leer anyways, and most weren't stupid enough to not realize that messing with the Golden Flash's subordinate was a bad idea. And if any were...she was confident she didn't need Fate to protect her anymore. As soon as she left, they would start ogling another one of the female sailors or mages anyways.

Teana put her stuff in her bag, took one step toward the exit, and was immediately knocked off her feet. She toppled to the ground, a body clasping her closely falling on top of her.

She prepared to open her mouth to shout "GET OFF ME!" followed by several expletives, but the voice of the mysterious attacker drowned her out.

"Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiia! I missed yooooooooooooooooooooou!"

Teana found herself face to face with her best friend.

Taking a breath, she calmly stated, "Subaru, _get off me_."

Unlike Teana, Subaru Nakajima was tall and tomboyish, with short blue hair and a headband she seemed to always wear, and unlike Teana, she was naturally athletically gifted and full of energy. When she was younger, Teana had resented her best friend for being faster than her seemingly effortlessly, but it was good, she realized now, that she had someone she could push herself to be like.

Teana pushed herself up, dusted herself off, and harrumphed. "Honestly, does now look like a good time to you?"

Subaru had an innocent look on her face. "What? You looked like you were having fun."

"Forget that. How did you even find me? And what are you doing here to begin with? If you're taking another unauthorized leave to see me I'm calling the Special Rescue Force and telling your commanding officer, right now."

"Nah," Subaru replied, waving her hand in front of her. "I just got this message that said I needed to report to Naval HQ immediately. It tells me to find you but I can't find you, so I look everywhere for you, and I find you! See?"

Why exactly the message mentioned Teana by name, she didn't know herself, and she wondered if Fate's recall had anything to do with it. But there were more pressing issues on her mind. Namely, the fact that naval headquarters was a gigantic place.

"Everywhere? Please. More like you looked for two minutes and asked Fate where I was or something like that."

"Well, not everywhere. It takes three hours to go around the base. It only took me one and a half to find you!"

The one thing Teana had to remember about Subaru was that her best friend was possibly the biggest idiot on the planet.

Especially since there was a computer in the lobby that could allow visitors to call on-duty Enforcers.

Suddenly, Subaru bent down and pinched Teana's exposed stomach, and the small redhead drew back in surprise with a yelp.

"Nice body," the tomboy commented. "You been working out?"

Teana clenched her fists and fumed. She would immediately punch anyone who tried to hit on her, but if it was Subaru who was doing it…

 _Waitwaitwaitwaitwait...hitting on you?! Why do you think she's hitting on you?!_

The door to the gym opened, and a small figure struggled through it, as if it had just run a marathon. A weak voice floated over toward the two girls. "Subaru...wait up…"

As the person drew closer, it became obvious that it was a small girl in a beret, panting and struggling heavily, with the giant bag of stuff she was carrying obviously no help. "T-there you are…" the girl said in a pained voice- "uwah!" She tripped, and her hat and bag came rolling straight toward Teana's feet, revealing rosy pink hair underneath it.

The girl lifted her head off the ground, and Teana once again saw a face she didn't think she would for a while: the youngest of the four personally trained by Hayate Yagami's Riot Force Six, Caro ru Lushe. "Oh...hi Tia-neechan…" she mumbled, giving a weak smile before her eyes drooped and her face fell to the ground.

As soon as the young girl seemingly passed out, Teana stared daggers at Subaru. "Caro was WITH YOU THE WHOLE TIME?! AND YOU LEFT HER BEHIND?!"

"Ehehe, it's not that big of a deal…"

"She's ELEVEN! She probably was scared half to death trying to find you!"

The bag that Caro was carrying unzipped, seemingly of its own accord, and a white, scaly, horned creature with beady red eyes peeked its head out before revealing its full body: a small white dragon. It crawled out of the bag to sniff its unconscious master before flapping up onto a railing nearby and hissing at Subaru, then it began to preen itself.

"See? Now Fried hates you," Teana sighed. "You are so irresponsible."

She bent down and took Caro on her back, carrying her over to a bench by the water fountains and setting her down, still asleep. The dragon left its makeshift perch to curl up on the girl's small body.

Sleeping, the dragon summoner was twice as adorable as she was awake, and Teana couldn't resist the urge to stroke her head a few times. She remembered the day the younger girl started calling her "big sister"; she was shocked at first since she was the youngest and wasn't all that good with people, but she came to like the affection. Caro would make a good little sister, Teana thought. And she helped fill the void in her heart that her brother left.

No, it wasn't just her. It was Subaru, and Erio, and Fate, and Signum and Vita, and Sharo, and Vice, and of course, Nanoha too. It was all of them. Even though she was too prideful to admit it, Teana was beyond grateful she got a chance to be part of the Strikers of Riot Force 6, and meet all of them.

Subaru's voice snapped her back into reality. "So...do you actually know what we're supposed to do here?"

"I had no idea you were coming at all. What do you think?" Teana bit back. Come to think of it, there was one face she hadn't seen yet. "Where's Erio?"

"She said he didn't get the message to report here. I have no idea why," Subaru shrugged.

"Just wait here and watch her for now. I'm going to go take a shower."

"Can I-"

"If you try to get in with me, I'll beat the crap out of you."

* * *

As Fate entered the office, the first thing that she saw was the large, imposing mahogany desk, and behind it the face of her half-brother, apparently still as stern as on the telecom.

She saluted, then began. "Brother. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Indeed. You've grown a lot. Although-" he stared at her chest, then smirked, " _some_ things haven't."

"Maybe you're right...but at least I don't have to convince my wife 12 cm is a normal size," Fate grinned.

Chrono winced and huffed as he always did when he couldn't think of a good comeback. "Anyway…" he grumbled, "I've called you here today to discuss a mission that I think that only Riot Force 6 can do."

"Riot Force 6 is disbanded," Fate replied. "The trainees have all graduated."

Chrono scrolled through what looked like a stack of documents on the top of his holographic desk and flicked one towards Fate. "From what it says here, it looks like the organization is still chartered, isn't it?"

He was right; the date of expiration on the paper was one month in the future.

"The reason we need you," Chrono continued, "is because this could quite possibly turn out to be a very dangerous mission. It contains some of the largest magical signals from an unadministered world ever since that whole Book of Darkness thing some years ago, and the autonomous detachment that handled the JS Incident with honor is undoubtedly the safest choice. However, only one adult and three youth of yours fit the requirements for the cover we will need them to take and the alibis we will need them to use. That adult is you. As for the youth, I've also called Lt. Lanster, Ms. Nakajima, and Ms. ru Lushe...or is it Ms. Caro? Lushe names always mess me up- anyways, those are who I've selected to accompany you on this mission. You'll see why in a few minutes."

"Wait...me, the only adult out of all of RF6?" Fate asked, incredulous. "What about Nanoha?"

"I hate to say it, but…" Chrono lowered his voice. "it's for publicity reasons. Right now, she's the poster girl for the entire military. Could you imagine the kind of fiasco that would happen if she were to get harmed in some covert mission?"

"And besides..." Her brother drew closer. "You wouldn't want your girlfriend to get hurt either, wouldn't you?"

Fate could feel her cheeks start to burn. "The hell? She's not my-"

"Sure, sure."

On Chrono's desk, the papers were replaced by a topographic map of seven continents and four oceans. It was an image Fate already knew; a world she had already spent years on.

The text " **UNADMINISTERED WORLD #97: EARTH** " flashed in the upper left hand corner.

On the right of the screen, a box formed around a small island chain, zoomed in once, and then zoomed in again until it filled the screen. The large, square island at the top, the long, curved one in the middle, and the small, round one at the bottom...it was all too familiar.

 _Why, of all places, did it have to be there?_

"These," Chrono explained, "are the islands of Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Honshu, which make up the country known as Japan on this world. I'm sure you're familiar, but you never know when you might need a good brushing up."

He waved his hand and a red dot appeared in the center of Honshu, toward the eastern coast. "Seventeen years ago, a magical pulse of magnitude 9 was detected here."

Fate controlled her gasp. Magnitude 9 was an unimaginably strong reserve of mana. She doubted that she could reach magnitude 7 even by pulsing her entire storage at once.

"Two more similar reactions followed, and in the following two years six reactions of the same type also occurred. Admiral Graham, who was in charge at that time, was preparing to launch a covert mission when they abruptly stopped."

"That was, until last February, when magical pulse reactions began again. Unlike the last time, they were not quite as large in size, but became more frequent. Sometimes up to twenty would be recorded in a day, all from the same area. Zoom."

The map zoomed into a cross-section of a city, labeled " **TOKYO** ". Red dots clustered in all sections of the map, in various sizes.

"After tracing the reactions, we found that this is the point at which reactions occur the most frequently," Chrono stated. He tapped the map again to zoom in, as the image of a large brick square building filled the screen with grass and trees surrounding it. Fate recognized it from her childhood as a school before the words " **OTONOKIZAKA PRIVATE ACADEMY** " flashed on the screen.

"This is an all-girls academy, and we believe at least one cause of the abnormal reactions to be located here. We plan to disguise the three members of RF6 chosen as students, hence the reason why Mr. Mondial was not selected as well. Even if the source of the reactions is not found, the school is centrally located enough to have an easy search for the other sources. Housing, money, identity, and all other concerns have been handled by the Logistics department."

"Your assignment is to find out who, or what, is causing the reactions and stop it. If left alone, their power could be used against us to devastating effect. We have no idea if any hostile groups have targeted this source, but I have no doubt some will. Be as careful as possible."

Chrono opened a drawer in his desk, removed three colorful pencil cases, and slid them across the table. Fate opened one; inside the picture of Subaru stared back from a white card labeled with "Otonokizaka Academy Student". At least she could still read the language. As for the others, Devices came equipped with near-instant translation sent directly to the ear canal anyways, so Fate wasn't concerned about that being an issue.

"Inside," said Chrono, pointing at the wallets, "are student identification cards, 5000 yen each, pencils, pens, and a few accessories: everything a normal high school girl in this country would carry."

"From now on, your subordinates are no longer Subaru Nakajima, Teana Lanster, and Caro ru Lushe. They are Subaru Nakajima, a transfer student from Kobe to Tokyo. Hibiki Ogasawara, a sick girl who has recently come back to school. And Shizuka Takigawa, a prodigy of an elementary schooler who has skipped three grades."

"I understand," Fate replied, "but what will I be doing?"

Chrono grinned. "I have something better for you." He slid a bookbag across the table. Inside it was a tag attached to a lanyard, and when she pulled it out Fate's eyes widened for a second.

"How do you like your new job, Fate Testarossa- _sensei_?"

* * *

 _Otonokizaka Academy rooftop_

The school would be opening less than two days from now, but in the early evening the only shape to be seen was that of a tall, indescript man (the twilight made it where any features could not be determined) standing motionless. Of course, any normal person would not be able to see him, and would walk right by him like he didn't exist. His cloaking spell made him completely invisible, sans for others like him, and one that he was meeting soon.

Footsteps sounded behind him, and the man did not turn. "So," he spoke, "you're the one that claims to be one of the Saint's guard, are you?"

The voice of a girl came from behind him. "That would be me."

"I don't really care if you are one or not...to me you're just another Mask," the man replied.

"That's no way to treat a Star Knight, Ullr," the girl mocked. "Keep it up and I might not find the rest for you. In fact...'

'I might just kill you right here."

Ullr tensed, preparing for a fight. He was no boy anymore; seventeen years had changed him. He was not sure if this mysterious informant he was sent to meet was bluffing or not, but he wouldn't go down without a fight regardless.

"It was a joke. Don't get so uptight."

Ullr didn't relax, but instead spoke again. "Who do you take orders from?"

"Well...I used to take them from Hretha. But she's dead. Then I used to take them from Tyr. But he did something stupid and now he's locked up in a TSAB prison along with his robots. So now...I take orders from me."

"Are the other Star Knights here?"

"Yes."

"Can you find them?"

"Who the hell do you think I am?"

"Will you find them?"

"Depends."

"How much do you want?"

"Oh, I don't want money..." the girl giggled. "I want something else. But I can't tell you what it is until I finish."

"Then no deal." Ullr replied.

"That's perfectly okay. But just to let you in on a little secret...the TSAB is onto it. They might even send mages soon. You wouldn't want them taking control of the key to the Gods' Eye you worked so hard to obtain, would you."

Ullr breathed out heavily. "Fine. You have a deal."

The mocking voice replied, "Pleasure doing business with you, Ullr of the Right Hand. Or should I say, Dominic Craven?"

Ullr whirled on his heel to catch a glimpse of this mysterious informant, but when he did there was none else on the roof but himself and the Kanto evening.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

I'm back! Sorry for the delay, guys. I know it's been a long time since I last wrote something, and I've had all sorts of issues in my personal life and am just lacking any motivation. In addition, my next chapter of the Belka Trilogy got deleted partway through, so I lack any motivation to get that finished as well. It must be tough being you guys, right? Still, I know my job is to keep you entertained, and I need to keep writing this to do that.

It's super late when I'm posting this, so this is about all I'm going to write. Enjoy, and a new chapter will come out very soon. Thanks for holding out hope that it would be continued, and I'll see you shortly.

-mrcmc888

 **MAHOU SHOUJO LYRICAL NANOHA IS THE PROPERTY OF MASAKI TSUZUKI, SEVEN ARCS, NBCUNIVERSAL ENTERTAINMENT JAPAN, ANIPLEX, KING RECORDS, AND A-1 PICTURES, AND LOVE LIVE! SCHOOL IDOL PROJECT IS THE PROPERTY OF DENGEKI BUNKO, LANTIS RECORDS, BANDAI VISUAL, SUNRISE, AND NIS AMERICA. I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING RELATED TO EITHER SERIES. PLEASE SUPPORT THE OFFICIAL RELEASES WHENEVER POSSIBLE.**


	3. A Strange New Country

_Zenkai no:_

Fate, Subaru, Teana, and Caro travel to Earth to assume the lives of Japanese schoolgirls! What will they find? Who will they meet? And most important, what is causing these mysterious, powerful magical reactions?

* * *

The four mages swooped over the trees of the forest just to the north of Tokyo, the sun glinting off the tops of the conifers. The area they had chosen to set down in was sparsely populated, but with a covert mission of this sort you could never be sure. So as not to cause an interplanetary incident, the three girls and their mentor were skimming the trees and hoping that anyone who accidentally caught a glimpse would just assume they were a flock of birds or something. A flock of magic wand-carrying, bipedal, uniform-wearing birds.

Following to the right of Fate in a diamond formation, Teana heard the voice of her commanding officer in her mind.

 _This is the landing zone, where the trees break for that field. Reduce altitude. I'll drop first, you three follow._

 _Roger,_ replied three voices of different pitches, including her own.

Ahead of her, the woods gave way to a checkerboard of farmland, and Fate leveled off and dropped. Teana looked to the left, Subaru was right beside her. Teana looked behind her, Caro was following. Teana looked to the right, no one there. She angled herself downwards to land in the middle of the brown dirt that Fate was about to gracefully touch down in, having turned upright and reduced her speed to a float. The redhead followed, flipping into a standing position to add drag, and hit the ground in one fluid motion. As her feet contacted the soil sprinkled with newly-budded wheat, she looked again to the left. Her best friend wasn't there anymore.

In the time it took her to process Subaru's sudden disappearance, she heard a loud yell overhead, and turned to see the blue-haired girl, headed straight for her.

The two collided, and for the second time in as many days Teana was knocked to the ground, although she did several involuntary somersaults this time.

As soon as she regained control, she sputtered out indignantly, "Are you STUPID?!"

Subaru scratched the back of her head, giving an innocent smile in response. "Sorry...it was such a nice day for flying that I wanted to do a barrel roll...I didn't put on my brakes in time..."

"We're supposed to be as low-key as possible! This is our first day here, and already you've disobeyed orders, endangered your squad mates' safety, and now we have to get out of here before some farmer calls the police because PEOPLE JUST FELL OUT OF THE SKY ONTO HIS FRONT LAWN!"

Teana sighed. Dealing with the one-brain-celled wonder took so much out of her. Sometimes she thought she would be as hyper as her best friend if she didn't use all her energy up controlling Subaru.

"Oh yeah, how far are we away anyways?"

She tapped the surface of her Device, and the metallic voice replied.

" _Distance to Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan is 123.45 farthings (local unit 50.37 kilometers)."_

Teana could feel the groan about to come out of her mouth. The city was just so large and spread out that this was the closest place the four mages would land, but that didn't mean she was happy about having to set down such a long way from their destination.

"So," the red-haired girl continued, dusting herself off, "anyone want to figure out how we're actually supposed to _get_ there?"

"Maybe we could hitchhike? I've got a better idea! I'll race you!" her friend replied, as happy-go-lucky as ever.

In her hand, Cross Mirage helpfully piped up. _"Walking time to Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan is 8.5 hours."_

"I hope your circuits overheat," Teana mumbled under her breath.

As Teana stood there, wondering exactly what else the great Subaru Nakajima had figured would take them to Tokyo from a field out in the middle of nowhere, she heard a low rumble to the east of her, growing closer.

Fate's voice filled her mind. _Someone's close. Stay calm._

Teana looked around nervously, looking for a bush to jump into or a tree to hide behind. But the field was as barren as a desert in the spring, and only seedlings barely peeked their heads above the safety of the ground. As she stood there frantically searching for cover, the rumbling grew even louder and soon a black-and-white car, far louder than what she was used to on Midchilda, with what appeared like flashing lights above where the driver sat appeared on the road where they were facing. It slowed and came to a stop right in front of them, and the window rolled down to reveal a middle-aged man in a blue uniform. She wasn't completely certain, but the man sure looked like a police officer to Teana. It was turning out exactly how she had predicted, and that wasn't a good thing.

Teana looked over at her superior; Fate's face was as calm as ever but she seemed to be a bit unnerved. As for herself, Teana's heart was racing. She and her friends could be discovered barely minutes into their mission.

 _I'll handle him_ , Fate communicated. _You girls calm down._

After nervous mental okays from all three members of the Riot Force 6 squad, Fate turned to the man in the car and hailed him.

After a pause, he replied. "My name's Yoshikawa with the Sagamihara Police Department. I got a phone call about some people stranded out here, are y'all okay? The call said you…fell out of the sky or something…"

Teana got a lump in her throat, but beside her, Subaru grinned. "We got lost!"

The only reply from the police officer was a confused stare.

Fate quickly jumped in. "Sorry, we're from out of town. We're trying to get to Tokyo, can you possibly help us, please?"

"I gotcha," the police officer replied, pointing to the farmhouse behind the mages. "Don't mind Old Man Fujii up there anyways. He's probably had a bit too much sake again. Say, are you going to Tokyo for that big cosplay event?"

 _Cosplay?_ Subaru asked.

 _You got me._ Teana had no idea what the word meant. Earth was strange.

"Yes, we actually are," Fate replied.

"Oh, that must be why you're wearing those costumes! I think I recognize who you're dressed as…my daughter loves that magical girl anime, but for the life of me I can't remember your names!"

 _Costumes?!_

When Teana looked down, she realized that none of the four mages had deactivated their Barrier Jackets. She was even still holding Cross Mirage's pistols in both hands. Immediately, she turned red. It was less than an hour after their arrival on Earth and she had nearly had her cover blown twice and already been embarrassed once, and she wasn't happy about it at all.

"Anyways, can you tell us how to get to Tokyo?" Fate asked.

"Sure," Officer Yoshikawa responded after a yawn. "Down that road about a half-kilometer is a train station. The local kids use it for school. It'll take you into Tokyo if you get on it."

Fate nodded in thanks, and with a wave the police officer sped off, leaving the girls alone. As he did so, Caro let out a breath that seemed like it had been held in the entire time Fate was talking to the policeman. "That was close…"

Fate started down the road in the way the officer had pointed, and waved at her subordinates to follow. Teana and her friends obediently trotted along, hoping to get to their destination quickly before anything else happened.

Of course, this was only the beginning of their trip into the realm of Earth, but it would certainly be nice if the mages could have some peace for just the rest of the day.

* * *

 _The next morning_

"It's too early…" Subaru moaned.

The rest of Riot Force 6's trip into the heart of the Japanese capital had been uneventful, although Teana had to deal with wearing her Barrier Jacket for all of the long train ride into Tokyo and having seniors staring at her and her friends the whole time. Subaru felt sorry for her friend. She already looked different enough from these people and she got embarrassed easily, so the costume she was forced to keep on for the sake of her alibi was absolutely mortifying.

Fortunately, the girls were able to deactivate their magical barriers as soon as they arrived at the address that Military Intelligence had provided, a large house just north of town. Some of the houses on the street were one-story constructs of wood and strange wooly white mats, while others, including the one that they were assigned, could have been any normal residence on Midchilda; in fact, some of the houses didn't look too different from the one Subaru grew up in. Still, it was large and just north of town, so it must have been expensive. Then again, she wasn't the one paying for it, so she paid it no mind, instead dashing inside to check out the place despite Teana's protests.

Inside she found a large foyer heading up to carpeted stairs, a living room with a big-screen television and a couple sofas. Investigation revealed a couple sheet-like things and pillows stuffed in the closet, and farther along was a kitchen with a fully stocked pantry. There were lots of snack foods; Subaru couldn't help but be impressed. Whoever in Military Intelligence had arranged this obviously did their homework. There were still a couple things she couldn't figure out, like that white box on the counter, but she put them aside and had already made it upstairs by the time her friends had entered their new home.

Upstairs were four bedrooms, one for each of the mages, she guessed. As she passed one, she noticed that the bedspread was blue. They had even figured out her favorite color. Subaru immediately flung herself onto it, throwing the pencil case she had been given before they made the trip to Earth aside, and rolled around in the softness with a series of happy yelps. This seemed like an even better world than she imagined.

After she took a few minutes to drink in the relaxation from the bed, she pulled herself up and opened the closet. Inside were school uniforms as well as all sorts of clothes she might have worn on a day off back home. This did really feel like home, even though it was dimensions away.

Of course, that warm feeling had dissipated when Fate woke the girls up at five in the morning in order to do some investigation before the school Subaru and her friends would be attending later that day opened up for its admission ceremonies. Sure, they needed a deserted environment in which to try to collect energy recordings from the site, and all the students coming in later in the day would contribute their own faint magic pulses as well as make it nearly impossible for Riot Force 6 to do anything related to their mission. But Subaru didn't really care about that, she just wanted a few more hours of sleep.

"Quit whining," Teana said shortly besides her. "You better not make me put up with this all day."

"But I'sh tiiiiiired…"

Teana flicked Subaru on the back of her head, and the tomboy immediately snapped up. "Ow! What was that for?"

"To wake you up, idiot!" Teana hissed.

"G-guys…" Caro stammered behind them. "It's okay…"

A stern look from their commander silenced all three of the girls. "Set your Devices to residue detection. I'll take the northwest section of the schoolyard, Teana, go to the southwest, Subaru, southeast, and Caro, northeast. If you find anything, be cautious. We'll wrap up at 0700 or so, or early depending on how many people have gathered here."

Normally Subaru liked having her legs exposed since it was easier to run that way, but it was early in an April morning, and winter had still not relinquished all of its control to spring just yet. The paper-thin plaid skirt that was part of her school uniforms did nothing to keep the chill out, and wind blew against her calves and thighs, making her shiver to the point they almost knocked together. This country's uniforms were nothing like those she wore in mage training school or the Rescue Brigade. They felt really strange on her.

 _I bet Tea's cold, too._ If she knew that, it would keep her spirits up that the frosty temperature wasn't exactly an illusion. But when she looked over at her best friend, she saw that Teana was wearing black stockings all the way up to her skirt, exposing only the barest bit of skin. Subaru didn't even know she had any of those.

Even though she was disappointed, she stood there looking at the thigh-highs a bit longer. She had never seen her friend wear these before, but they did look good on her…and Tea had really pretty legs, too…

The wind blew on the back of her thighs, which had peeked out from underneath the green tartan as she peered to take a closer look, and Subaru stiffened up.

Her friend's response, noticing what she was doing, was deadpan. "What are you staring at?" A second later, Teana moved her hand over her backside, and it might have been Subaru's imagination but it seemed like the redhead's eyes widened and she flipped her head away from her friend.

Fate announced for them to split up, and dutifully the three girls trudged to the opposite corners of the schoolyard where they had been assigned. It was actually a lot of ground to cover; the large building seemed very far off in the distance, and the abundance of bushes and trees meant that she couldn't take a straight path across her quadrant.

At least the walking would get her warmed up, Subaru thought as Mach Caliber announced from the palm of her hand, _Commencing scan data for pulse residue map. Please enter dimensions._

Subaru did as she was told, and her Device continued, _Perimeters calibrated. Scanning area._

Within a few minutes, a holoscreen appeared, splayed with blotches of color. Subaru trudged off toward the first one.

After maybe an hour of searching, the sun had crept over the horizon and the tomboyish mage was starting to get bored. The schoolyard was even larger than she thought, but it was all trees and grass. The actual buildings, like a section of club rooms, the tennis courts, and the pool were on the whole other side of the campus. She had found nothing anyways; when she arrived at the points of interest Mach Caliber displayed, the residue was either negligible or ancient, and none of it matched the signatures Fate had told her to look for anyways.

As Subaru trudged over the grass again on the way to her next point, a bright splotch appeared on the holoscreen. She stared at it for a second, apparently to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her; it was a very powerful signature concentrated in a very small spot, and it looked extremely recent as well. As she looked at it for a second, it disappeared and then reappeared a second later, twenty meters to the east of where it had first been.

 _It's…moving?_

It might be dangerous, but Subaru's curiosity was too powerful to hold back anymore, and she took off toward the site of the mysterious readings. She almost broke into a run, but the sun had fully entered the sky and she had to remind herself that some teachers might be coming in for their first day by now, or even some students who had business with clubs or other things.

As she grew close to the site of the pulse, she saw that there was a long, one-story white building ahead that she either hadn't been by before or didn't notice the first time. Slowly, she walked around the perimeter, crouching to keep low; there was a door to the place but it appeared to be locked, and she didn't see any windows. It was looking very difficult to get into the building, and Subaru remembered Fate's warning about keeping a low profile. Maybe it was better that she leave this one alone.

That was, until, she looked upward and saw a small ventilation porthole open, stuck in one of the small walls in the crevice formed when the roof came to a point. Carefully, Subaru backed up a distance and took off in a run, jumped and grabbed onto the ledge beneath the window with her fingertips, then used a cushion spell to soften the impact into the wall and give her rebound momentum to pull herself up through the window.

It was a tight fit, but she crawled into a dimly-lit space that appeared to be a storage area. The pulse was right below her now; there was not enough room to stand up so she was forced to walk on all fours, and the wooden planks which her feet sat on were ancient, creaking loudly every time she so much as moved a half-step. As a result, she had to stay still for what seemed like ages, hoping whoever or whatever was down there wouldn't be curious and decide to come check it out.

Her hand bumped into something, and looking over in the dim light provided by the window behind her Subaru could make out the shape of a quiver. Looking around her, she could see that there were bows and hand guards and boxes of things all around. So this must be what the storage area was used for.

She moved forward cautiously, and as she did she noticed a few cracks in the floor where light from whatever was going on downstairs was seeping through. _It must be a trap door._ Subaru pulled on it gently, pushed on it gently, but it was not budging either way. Softly, hesitantly, she whispered, "Mach Caliber, Separation Bind."

Several sky-blue, glowing chains shot from the Device in her hand, and soundlessly they ripped the door off its hinges, letting the light from the floor beneath shoot up into the attic. Slowly, hesitantly, Subaru crawled toward the space and peeked through. It just looked like an empty floor to her…

There was something moving in the corner of her eye. Subaru tensed. Underneath her, a figure appeared from one of the corners of the trap door: dressed in what appeared to be a white gown with a black sash, long hair so dark blue it almost appeared to be raven flowing down the figure's shoulders and back like a princess.

Subaru leaned over to take a closer look and immediately felt her body leaving the floor it was resting on. She had no time to even cry out as she fell, landing with a whump on top of a soft object.

It felt nice, whatever had cushioned her fall. Although she wanted to stay face down in it a little bit longer, Subaru pulled her head up.

Staring back at her was a terrified girl, her amber eyes wide in shock, her mouth open but apparently not able to make a sound.

Her hair was disheveled, spread out on the floor from the collision and Subaru was sitting on top of her, but she could tell that it was who she had seen before.

 _That was the source of the readings? No way…could it actually be? She sure doesn't look like it._

Quickly, remembering Fate's warning about staying inconspicuous again, Subaru clasped her hand over the girl's mouth and hissed the shushing sign out. Not that it would have mattered if she didn't; the poor girl appeared to be so frightened she had gone temporarily mute.

Suddenly, her best friend's voice rang out in her mind. _Are you okay? Fate saw a huge blip on the radar and told me to help you with it…I'm heading over now…_

The door to the building opened and Teana appeared, panting as she stood in the doorframe. _Is everything all ri-_ She looked up, saw Subaru straddling the girl, her hand over the girl's mouth, and her eyes grew as wide as the girl's had before.

 _Subaru, what the HELL ARE YOU DOING?! GET OFF HER! RIGHT NOW!_

Immediately, Subaru jumped up off the girl and to her feet, grinning sheepishly.

 _Honestly, what were you thinking? Now I've gotta decide whether to use a memory erase or not! Why do you have to make things so difficult?_

 _Sorry…_

 _If I had half a mind I'd tell Fate. But just this once, okay? Since you're my friend and all. You owe me now, though. Don't forget._

Subaru flashed the thumbs-up toward Teana as her friend took a breath.

"Sorry about that, she's foreign," Teana said, trying to keep from looking nervous. "We're here with the Embassy's exchange program, and I kinda lost track of her. I hope she didn't do anything to you."

The girl, who still hadn't made it to her feet, weakly nodded no.

"My name's Hibiki Ogasawara. I'm part British. She's Subaru Nakajima; she was born in America. We're both going to be second years here. She doesn't really get the culture just yet…hope you don't mind."

Subaru bowed her head. "Sorry for disturbing you."

The girl, who had gotten back to her feet, waved one of her hands. "No, it's fine." Her voice was soft but it didn't match her, Subaru thought. It was deep and powerful and almost sounded like that of a mother rather than a student.

"I'm Umi Sonoda. I'm a second-year here too. This is the Archery Club's range-"

Subaru didn't have any time to look around when she fell on the girl, but as she gazed from one side of the clubhouse to the other she could see wood paneling on the floors, and a long space with targets on one wall as well as spots to shoot from. So that was what all the stuff in the attic was for.

"I love this club but we only have a few people now…I'm the only one who comes to practice in the mornings and over the summer anymore. I guess you could call me the club president by default." Umi sighed and glanced downward for a second. "I'm worried we won't get any new members this year and will have to disband…when I first joined there were fifteen people. Now there are only six and three are graduating this year."

Subaru really didn't understand why this girl was acting so serious about her club activities. It was just something you did for fun, right? This country didn't make any sense.

"So…" Teana hesitantly asked. "Would you like us to join, then?"

"Well, not if you find something else you like more," Umi replied, downcast. "Otonokizaka is really more music-focused than sports-focused. Our athletic teams can't compete with the choir and the orchestra and the brass band. We've had a world-renowned pianist graduate from here, several Tokyo Symphony members, a singer or two…I understand if you'd like one of those programs more. They're just too good."

After another wistful pause, she said, "Sometimes I wish I had joined one of those instead, but I can't sing and I don't think I could learn any instruments…archery and judo and the mai dance are the only things I'm really decent at anyways."

She had said judo, which Subaru was pretty sure she'd read before was a martial art. This girl didn't seem like the type for that, though. Subaru wasn't sensing any aggression or competitiveness from her. In fact, she seemed more like the type that would just let herself be beaten down without putting up any resistance. Still, Subaru wasn't sure what to think of Umi Sonoda. She couldn't quite place her finger on it, but when she looked the archery club member's way, the mage felt something twisting in her stomach just a tiny bit.

"By the way, which class are you in? It would be nice if I could know some more people this year. Last year all I knew were two of my friends from elementary school and Akane from this club. I'd like to make more friends, but I'm just bad at it…" she continued, downcast.

"We're both in 2-1. There's another student on the exchange program with us who's a first-year. You might see her sometime," Teana replied.

"I'm in 2-1 too. I think Honoka and Kotori are too. You'll like them if you meet them, I think. I've grown up with them, they're very nice."

At that moment, a clearly artificial bell pealed the Westminster chimes, and Umi startled. "I was liking talking to you guys so much I completely forgot to practice…" she lamented. She peeled off the gown she was wearing and hung it up on a rack behind the shooting range and set the bow and quiver down beside it.

She had appeared to be timid when they first met, but Umi Sonoda was growing more confident the longer she was around the two mages, and Subaru did notice she had a sort of grace to her; she almost carried herself regally.

"I've got to get going," she announced softly, fiddling with the collars and cuffs of her uniform and smoothing out her shirt. "See you at the assembly, or at class, whichever comes first. It was nice talking to you, Nakajima-san...Ogasawara-san…"

 _Nakajima-san?_ Subaru was almost taken aback at someone using her last name so formally. "Ehh- Subaru is fine."

Beside her, Teana added, "Call me Hibiki, too."

The tiniest of smiles played on the face of the archery club member. "You can call me Umi if you want. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of each other this year. It wouldn't hurt to be friendlier."

As she turned to leave, one foot out the door, Subaru piped up. "Um," Umi turned her head over her shoulder, stopped in her tracks. "I kinda forgot where the assembly was…"

"It's in the main building, in the auditorium," the girl said, pointing toward a boxy protrusion on the back side of the school building from the street. I forgot this was your first time in Japan, wasn't it?" the girl said cheerfully. "Don't worry. I can show you around if you'd like since it's your first day and all."

As the three walked to the auditorium, now surrounded by many other students who had arrived since the mages did and were now headed for the same place, Umi and Teana were chatting away about what Britain was like, and if she thought Japan was a nice place, and so on. To her credit, Teana had memorized her new identity's information like a champ. Subaru didn't even want to think about having to come up with fake memories on the fly.

Subaru still didn't know what to think about the first Otonokizaka student they had met. She certainly seemed friendly, and if they could get to know the students it would make their search for information much easier. However, she still couldn't put her finger on it, but the uneasy feeling that had started for her when they first met was still there. It was small, but it was still there. Maybe the shy persona was all an act, Subaru thought. She shook her head slightly. That was rude, assuming things about someone she had just met. But the nagging feeling still remained.

It was better to put it out of her mind for now. She had no idea if this girl had anything to do with the strange reactions they were sent to investigate anyways. Still, it was just a little strange.

The three had finally managed to make it to the auditorium, running into heavy traffic all the way as girls scrambled for seats next to their friends. As they entered, Umi stopped, looking out at the rows and rows of chairs stacked above each other in a clamshell shape, all alike, their color nearly impossible to determine over the dim lighting, scanning them back and forth. "Where is she…she told me she would be over there…" she muttered to herself.

"Oh! There she is," Umi exclaimed. "Kotori's over in the middle section. Second years sit there."

Subaru followed her gaze to find another girl, maybe only a few meters away but seeming further thanks to the masses of students that were filling the aisles, waving her hands in an attempt to alert the group. It took the three a little bit, but they managed to fight through the crowd and take their seats next to Umi and her friend.

The girl was obviously the same age, but appeared to be younger than the archery club member thanks to the way that she sat and styled her ash-colored hair, which had been pulled into a ponytail in a very childlike way. She greeted her friend by smiling, but as she took a look at Subaru and Teana, her expression changed to confusion.

"Foreigners?" she asked. "Umi-chan, who are they?"

The first thing Subaru thought of when she heard Umi's friend open her mouth was a small cartoon animal. Unlike her friend who sounded much older than she appeared, this girl's voice was so high and squeaky that it sounded like she had inhaled helium. It was pretty clearly fake too, Subaru thought. She wondered if it was a common thing in Japan for girls to intentionally raise their voices higher to sound cute or whatever. It sure sounded annoying to her.

"Yeah, I met them this morning. They're from Class 1, too. This is Hibiki-" Teana smiled and nodded. "-and this is Subaru." Upon hearing her name, Subaru waved and tried to look as friendly as possible.

"Oh, hi!" the squeaky-voiced girl replied. "My name's Kotori Minami. You can call me whatever you like. Kotori is fine, but I've been called Kotorin and Mitchan before. I hope you don't mind it if I use your first names. You seem nice anyways, Umi isn't friendly with very many people so anyone she does like is my friend too."

Umi closed her eyes and let out a small, indignant huff, and then sat down. "She's the headmaster's daughter. She can get away with saying whatever she wants."

If that jab was intended to irritate Kotori, it didn't work. Umi's friend remained cheerful and smiling as the mages sat down. "Where are you guys from? I've always wanted to go overseas. It's so cool!"

Subaru looked around the auditorium. She couldn't find Caro's pink head in the section in front of them, but she noticed Fate sitting with the teachers to the right of the stage. She didn't notice her students, however.

Kotori was good at making small talk, so Teana and Subaru ended up just chatting away with the Otonokizaka students as the auditorium filled up. Gradually, the flow of girls finding their seats slowed to a trickle, as the murmurs of chatting filled the room. However, Subaru noticed that the seat on Kotori's left remained unoccupied. "Who's that for?" she asked.

"I'm saving it," came the reply.

"Late on the first day…what a surprise," Umi grumbled.

 _Whoever they're talking about sounds like me. Wait, that's not a good thing…_

Subaru turned her head back around to relax in her padded theatre seat, then heard the short tones of her friend's voice in her head.

 _Subaru! Reactions in the hallway heading this way! Keep an eye on the door!_

* * *

My name's Honoka Kosaka, 16 years old!

I go to school at Otonokizaka Academy with my friends Kotori-chan and Umi-chan, and I love it!

Right now I'm late for my first day though…I hope I make it on time!

Finally I'm here! I'm out of breath, but I have a couple minutes to spare! I hope Kotori-chan and Umi-chan saved a seat for me!

Eh? What are those big white signs in the hallway? I stop skipping to the auditorium to take a closer look. I hope it's something fun…

"Due…to…lack…of…student…attendance…effective…Wednesday…February…24…2014…Otonokizaka…Girls'…Academy…will…be…permanently…CLOSED?"

It's closing at the end of this year? This can't be happening! I love this school! I've gotta tell my friends!

I take off down the hallway again. The auditorium is just on the right. My heart is still racing from running to school, but I can keep going!

I burst through the auditorium door. Where are they? Where are they? I frantically look. A blue head, a brown head…There they are! They're sitting with two girls I don't recognize. I don't mind that, though! I've gotta tell them!

I run to where they are. They look up at me. The two girls sitting by them are looking at me curiously. Are they foreign? They don't look Japanese.

I take a big, deep breath. "Guys! Big trouble!" I shout. "The school is getting closed!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

School's started up again. You know what that means (even less time than I usually have to write). This chapter took me a little bit to write, but I really do enjoy this, so I tried to finish as quickly as I could. The story has finally kicked into high gear, with the Love Live characters arriving!

On another note, I'm writing and publishing this chapter from a brand new PC! It did cost me a vacation, but it's worth all $1600 to me. I can now play my favorite games without busting my graphics card...yay! ^w^

New chapter coming soon. Next time, the first years and third years! Until then, have a great time reading and see you soon!

-mrcmc888

* * *

 **MAHOU SHOUJO LYRICAL NANOHA IS THE PROPERTY OF MASAKI TSUZUKI, SEVEN ARCS, NBCUNIVERSAL ENTERTAINMENT JAPAN, KING RECORDS, AND A-1 PICTURES, AND LOVE LIVE! SCHOOL IDOL PROJECT IS THE PROPERTY OF DENGEKI BUNKO, LANTIS RECORDS, BANDAI VISUAL, SUNRISE, AND NIS AMERICA. I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING RELATED TO EITHER SERIES. PLEASE SUPPORT THE OFFICIAL RELEASES WHENEVER POSSIBLE.**


	4. Do Miracles Come True After All?

**Zenkai no:**

Teana, Subaru, and Caro meet the residents of Otonokizaka! However, a surprise throws a huge monkey wrench in the TSAB's plans!

* * *

The bearer of bad news was, in fact, right. There were large signs announcing the closing of Otonokizaka Private Girls' Academy all over the hallways and bulletin boards.

"I don't know how we missed this…" Teana muttered, and beside her, Umi nodded in agreement. All of them had completely failed to notice either the messages or the general atmosphere until Headmaster Minami had announced it in the opening speech.

"See? It's terrible!" Honoka Kosaka exclaimed, pushing herself up to her tiptoes and fluttering her arms around. "We've got to do something! Don't you guys think so?"

"Like what?" Umi snapped.

The energetic ginger girl fell silent. She reminded Teana a lot of Subaru…not that it was a comparison she wanted to make. Dealing with one idiot was hard enough and now it looked like there was going to be another one running around all year.

Still, there was more to her than that. The huge blip that had appeared on the mana pulse radar earlier this morning was right where the posters were, and she had come bursting through the door only a few seconds later. Teana was pretty certain that Honoka was important to them in some way. She just wasn't sure why.

"Come on!" the perky second-year moaned. "Don't you want to help me out?" She suddenly turned, and her shiny blue eyes lit up, she pounced on Teana. "You two! Foreign people! Want to help us save the school?"

Teana didn't know what to say in reply. "Ehhhh…"

A low, menacing growl came from behind. "Ho…no…ka…" Umi looked absolutely furious with her friend's behavior. To Teana, it was quite justified.

The ginger second-year backed off quickly.

"It's okay, Honoka-chan," Kotori said. "We've got all year to think of something."

"Whatever, let's just get to class. We're going to be late," Umi harrumphed, and turning tail she marched on ahead. Kotori and Honoka ran to get on either side of her, but Teana and Subaru stayed a bit behind them.

 _Hey, Subaru_ , Teana muttered, turning her telepathic communication back on. _Do you think Kosaka has something to do with what we're looking for?_

 _Um, yeah, I think. Those reactions this morning were pretty big. I wish we could check the residue now, but there are too many people…_

 _I'll set it to record and check it when we get home._ Teana silently thought of the record magical pulse function, and Cross Mirage vibrated in her schoolbag to confirm it.

This was an unexpected development in their investigation. Now, as well as working against a presumed antagonistic force, the TSAB would be forced into a time limit. If Teana and her squadmates failed, it would be a mortifying blunder for not just Riot Force 6, but the entire division as a whole.

Yet she wasn't bothered by it that much. She had a lead, after all. Now the next step was just to confirm it.

* * *

 _Upstairs_

Setting her papers and bag on the desk to the right of her, Fate took the attendance roster from the stack and looked out over her homeroom. They weren't all here yet, but most of them were either chatting or staring ahead blankly. They didn't seem to be much affected by the news that barring something extraordinary, they would be the final graduating class at this school. Of course it shouldn't bother them; they had other things to focus on.

Putting her paper down on the podium in front of her, Fate turned to the blackboard and began writing her name in yellow chalk, as big as she could make it. It had been so long since she had been to school in this country, she had almost forgotten how teachers introduced themselves to their class even though she could remember the katakana for her name just fine. She hoped she could remember enough from her childhood to be passable.

As she finished writing the last kana, two students standing next to her came to her attention. The one in the front was tall and stood authoritatively, with blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and an icy blue gaze; she didn't look very Japanese either, Fate thought. That was the good thing about a school in central Tokyo. The city was so diverse, there was already bound to be half Japanese and foreigners attending this school, so no one would bat an eye at three more.

The one behind the girl that Fate guessed was a half-Japanese was shorter and a bit more full-figured, with long purple hair pulled into two separate loose ponytails; unlike her stern counterpart she was wearing an easygoing smile and appeared to be enjoying herself. The two, just from Fate's first glance, appeared to be as different as a Zulu and a Viking, but it seemed they got along.

The tall, blonde one began. "Hello, my teacher. I am pleased to make your acquaintance," she said in very bad German.

"It is the same to you," Fate replied in equally bad French.

"My name is Ayase. I'm the student council president here. If you don't mind me introducing myself, I'd like to know if you'll be available for any meetings with us in the future, since we're the liaison between the student body and the staff."

"No problem," Fate replied. "I'm Fate Testarossa, and this is my first year here. I was born in Italy, but I went to school in Japan for most of my life, so I know my way around, don't worry. I might see both of you for English." Fate was glad she had remembered the Earth country her alias was supposed to be born in. What Military Intelligence had concocted for them seemed like a huge amount to remember, but she had apparently remembered most of it.

"Are you with the Embassy's exchange program that I heard about?" the student council president asked, curiously. "It seems like a great idea to me…it's just a shame it had to happen now. We of the student council have been working hard to solve it, so I really hope you're not out of a job after only one year…but honestly I don't know at this point."

 _You tell me._ This bombshell of the school being closed put Fate and her students' backs up against the wall. "Yes, I'm leading the exchange. I personally selected this school; we don't have any third years, but so far the students seem to be enjoying it. Come to think of it, I'm not intending to be rude or anything but are you foreign as well?"

"Yes. My mother is Japanese and my father's Russian. I was born in Volgograd but I moved here before I started high school. I like Japan so far."

Fate pulled her attendance roster off the podium. "Is that why…your previous teacher left a note you romanize as Eli, not Eri, right?"

"It's short for Elizaveta," she replied. "My mother picked mine and my sister's names out; they work well in either language."

"Oh, that's interesting. Who's that with you?"

The stocky girl stepped forward with a smirk. "I'm Tojo, the student council vice president. I'm Elicchi's silent support!"

The president didn't say anything, but Fate thought she looked slightly annoyed.

Her subordinate continued. "I'm a shrine maiden at the Kanda-myojin just down the road, and I can tell your fortune too if you like…"

Eli pulled her vice president over to her, and whispered loud enough for Fate to hear every word: "Nozomi! You're going to make another teacher think you're weird!"

"She tends to get a bit passionate when she can talk about her hobbies," the half girl explained.

She paused for a second, then did her best attempt to smile in a friendly way. It wasn't very good, but Fate did think she at least tried. "I hope to see you at our meetings. We have to go sit down now."

The two scurried to their seats. The classroom was nearly full at this time, and shortly the bell chimed for the start of the day. After nervously introducing herself in much the same way she had done to the two student council members, Fate took up the attendance sheet at the podium. Hesitantly clearing her throat, she began to call roll.

"Ayase?"

"Here." Eli raised her hand.

"Kanou?"

"Here."

"Takanashi?"

"Here."

"Yazawa?"

No reply.

"Nico Yazawa?"

There was still no reply. "Okay, absent then?" Fate asked no one in particular, before marking that student down and returning to her roll call. The monotony of names passed her by quickly, until she was almost at the end.

"Toyama?"

"Here."

"Tojo?"

"Here," Nozomi replied lazily, raising her hand too.

"Nonohara?"

"Here."

"Morikawa?"

"Here."

That was the end of the roll, and Fate put it back down as she prepared to switch classes for the first time. She was the only English teacher in the building, so she'd be paying the second years a visit first.

She hoped, at least, that Teana and Subaru were behaving themselves.

* * *

 _Downstairs, Class 1-4_

"Kayochin! Kayochin! It's like we have our own little sister! She's so cuuuuuuuuuute!"

As soon as Caro ru Lushe had entered the first year classroom, she had become the center of attention whether she wanted to or not. An eleven-year-old in a room full of fifteen-year-olds was not a common occurrence at all, and most of them reacted to her with awws and squeals as if she was the definition of cuteness. The problem was, she didn't want to be cute or like being the center of attention. But thanks to her prodigal skills as a summoner in the TSAB, attention had always followed her wherever she went, and it didn't look like it would change here, even though none of these students had any idea she was a mage at all.

Right now, she was being set upon by two overeager classmates, and was so shocked she could barely utter a word in response to the girl with short orange hair and a boyish demeanor who looked like she was about to pick Caro up and snuggle her like a teddy bear. She didn't look like she had any idea what personal space was. Caro wasn't too thrilled about that.

"Rin-chan, maybe you should-" The tomboy's friend, a small, mousy-haired girl, took one look at Caro and immediately double took. "She's adorable…"

Fortunately, Caro was saved by the school bell ringing, and a stern homeroom teacher who rapped his ruler on the podium to send the students back to their seats. Caro breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe for now, although she wasn't looking forward to lunch. She wanted to use her time to talk to Subaru and Teana, and being surrounded by every girl in the first year wouldn't help at all.

After the bell, the teacher called for the introductions of the class, and soon it came to be Caro's turn. As she shyly walked up to the blackboard, she heard a few slight oohs and squeals, but she had expected them after what happened earlier. She hesitantly turned to the blackboard and wrote the name that the character she was playing had been given, although she couldn't reach the top of it. A little bit peeved about her lack of height, she turned back to the class.

"My name's Shizuka Takigawa…" she said softly, averting her eyes as usual. "I'm an exchange student from France and I skipped three grades, so please take care of me…"

She didn't like speaking publicly, and the awws that followed her introduction only made her more embarrassed. She shuffled quickly to her seat, trying her hardest to take the attention off of herself.

After a few introductions, Caro was starting to tune out, when she heard a familiar voice at the front of the class. The tomboy was standing at the blackboard, as cheerful as ever. "I'm Rin Hoshizora! I'm in the track club! Nice to meet you!" she said, before striking what Caro thought was a pose. Before sitting down, she passed right by Caro's desk and smiled. The young dragon summoner pretended not to notice. She just didn't get along well with hyper people. That was disregarding Subaru, of course.

One more name passed, then the teacher called another one. "Koizumi?"

There was no reply, so the call came again. "Koizumi?"

"Hanayo Koizumi?"

"Uh, sorry!" a soft voice exclaimed, and the girl that had been checking out Caro with Rin earlier nearly tripped trying to get up from her desk. She quickly made her way to the center of the room. "Um…hi…I'm Hanayo Koizumi…I don't know what to say about myself, so nice to meet you, I guess…"

She was as shy as Caro herself, but it looked like she could get up to a lot more mischief if her friend was around. Nonetheless, Caro thought she might be nice to get to know if only Rin wasn't around.

The next two periods went without any incident, until the lunch bell rang. She excused herself quickly, trying to find her way to where Teana and Subaru were without running into the duo she really didn't want to see any more of. Fortunately, she was moving fast enough to have lost them, but her squadmates weren't anywhere she looked, not on the roof, not in the cafeteria, and not upstairs. Finally, she stopped in an open courtyard with tables, looking around dejectedly. There weren't that many people outside in April, so maybe they were just getting their food and coming out here.

"There she is! Kayochin! Kayochin, comm'ere! Kayochin!"

 _Oh, crap._

Rin Hoshizora was racing across the courtyard toward her, with Hanayo panting behind close in tow. They were the last people she wanted to see, even though she knew they just wanted to be friends. But they were annoying, and she couldn't get rid of them.

Caro was resigning herself to a lunchtime of being shook around like a pillow when a voice came from her side, young but biting. "Do you two have nothing better to do than harass kids?"

"Aww, Maki's mad…" Rin muttered, the enthusiasm stopped in its tracks and replaced by an apologetic grin. "Come on, Kayochin." The two took their lunches and disappeared around the corner.

It occurred to Caro that she had better get a look at her temporary savior. When she turned around, she exhaled suddenly. The girl standing in front of her was almost supermodel beautiful. Her brilliant red hair, a far redder shade than Rin's, hung to her shoulders, not too long but not too short. Her eyes were deep purple, and her skin was smooth all around, showing off her jawline, her cheekbones, and every other attractive feature of her face. She didn't look like the kind of person who would associate with commoners, Caro thought. But at the same time, Caro owed her, so she had to say something.

"Um, I don't think I've seen you before…"

"Maki Nishikino from class 1-1," the girl replied coolly. _I think that name's written "princess"_ , Caro thought. It fit her.

"Were they bothering you?" Maki asked, surprisingly caring.

"Um, yeah, kinda," Caro replied. "I'm Shizuka Takigawa from 1-4. They wouldn't leave me alone since I walked in this morning. I haven't seen you…did you come in late?"

"Yeah, I had a doctor's appointment. I don't understand why they would-" She stopped to take a closer look. "Wait, how old are you exactly?"

"I'm eleven."

Maki's expression changed to a little bit surprised. "Oh, now I get it. Don't mind them. Hoshizora and Koizumi tend to bother anyone who interests them. I've been in school with them a long time."

Maki drew a yellow can out of the bag she was carrying with her bento in it. "I forgot. I bought a couple of these before I went outside. You want one?"

Caro nodded yes, opened the can, took a sip and nearly spit it out. It was so bitter. Even though she didn't know what sane country would consider this dark liquid a suitable drink for high schoolers. Nonetheless, it would be rude to refuse someone who had been so nice to her, so she made an attempt to keep drinking.

As she drank, something crossed Caro's mind. "You bought two drinks, but you're alone, aren't you?"

"Yeah." Maki took a seat on the back of one of the benches that surrounded the tables and opened hers.

"Are you waiting for someone?"

"Not in particular. I just kinda had a feeling I'd meet someone today."

"But nobody in particular?"

"Yeah."

"Don't you get lonely?"

"I don't mind," Maki shrugged. "It's nice being by myself. You're not like the rest of them. They're all so superficial and annoying."

"I'm not?"

"Nah, you're nice."

Caro practically glowed. This sort of compliment, coming from someone so beautiful…she had never thought she was good enough to have a friend like that.

 _Oh, crap! I still have to talk to Teana and Subaru, and lunch is over soon!_ She had been so engrossed in conversation she had completely forgot.

"Um, Nishikino-san…" Caro muttered. "Sorry, but I have to find some friends of mine…I'd like to stay longer, but it's important…"

"No problem," the pretty red-haired girl replied, just the faintest hint of a smile playing out across her face. "Anyway, I hope I talk to you again."

Hurriedly thanking her classmate, Caro ran ahead to find her friends.

* * *

 _Outside the second-year wing_

"What are we going to do? What are we going to do?" Honoka moaned before starting again. "We need to think of something! Kotori-chan! Umi-chan! Think of something! You too, Subaru-chan and Hibiki-chan!"

Ever since the announcement in the morning, the ginger second-year had been like this all day. Subaru was a bit surprised. Sure, the school was important to the students, but she hadn't expected one to be this serious about it.

"Guys, if we don't do something, the school is going to close!" Honoka exclaimed. "Come on, help me think of something! You want to save it too, don't you?"

"Honoka-chan, I think you're overreacting…" Kotori muttered.

"Just asking other people to help you isn't going to do anything," Umi said coldly. "You've got to come up with something yourself."

While probably well-meaning enough, it was harsh to the point Honoka stopped talking for a second. Subaru felt a little twinge of frustration. It was rather uncalled for.

"Yeah, she's right," Teana said, moving to keep the conversation going and avoid the awkwardness. "You've got to come up with something yourself too."

"Well, okay…" Honoka replied quietly. "I don't know what to think of, but I'll do my best…"

"Look, Honoka," Umi said curtly. "I'm just going to tell you the truth. I don't think we can do anything. The attendance has been declining for ten years. When we entered, there were only four first-year classes. Now there's only two. Nobody wants to send their daughters to an expensive private same-sex music academy anymore. It's going to close. We're nothing but a relic. And besides," she paused for a second. "With Utagahama a kilometer and a half down the road, all the kids who would go here are going there instead. We can't compete with them."

"Utagahama?" Teana asked.

"Utagahama Technical Institute," Umi replied. "They call it UTX for short. They're a big new school with technology and tech integration everywhere. They specialize in STEM education...they're with the times and we're not." She sighed. "Everyone wants to go there. My dad wanted me to go there, too, but my mom thought I needed a more traditional education."

By her, Honoka looked at the ground, extremely downcast.

It was almost as if Subaru was seeing two different people. The Umi Sonoda who had been so shy in the morning was now dealing out brutal honesty to her best friends.

 _Well, maybe if you know each other for a long time you can get away with that_ , she thought. Still, it didn't make much sense to her.

"Cheer up, Honoka-chan," Kotori said in her cheerful, high-pitched voice. "It's not like we're going to be separated or anything."

"I know…" Honoka lamented. "But I like this school so much…and we just now got the chance to meet people like Hibiki-chan and Subaru-chan…"

It was strange hearing Teana referred to by another name, and having to call her that too. Subaru wasn't sure how far she was going to go without slipping up.

A soft voice came from beside her. "So that's where you were…"

Subaru recognized the voice as Caro's before she saw the figure of the tiny first-year, her blazer a bit too big for her and the blue bow she wore, different from the second-years' red bows, matching her skirt.

Seeing Caro always cheered her up. Subaru smiled and announced: "Ca- Shizuka! Hi!"

Honoka's downcast expression completely disappeared. "Who's that? She's so cute!"

Caro didn't seem too pleased, but Kotori was beaming as well, and even Umi appeared to be a bit lightened by the eleven year-old's presence. The young dragon summoner tended to do those things to people. Subaru remembered how many people at Riot Force 6 headquarters wanted to pat her on the head or hug her.

Subaru jumped to her feet. "Everyone meet the final Embassy exchange student! This is Shizuka Takigawa, who's from France, and she's eleven!"

"E-Eleven?" Honoka blurted out. "How'd she get in here?"

Umi sighed. "You know it's possible to be smart enough to skip grades, right?"

"Well, she is smart!" Subaru smiled. It wasn't an exaggeration. Caro was the best of Riot Force 6, and possibly one of the best in the TSAB, on the written parts of mage examinations despite being so young. Since she wasn't a fighter (her dragons did all the work for her), it made sense that she'd have more time to study.

"Sorry I'm late," Caro said. "There were a couple of first-years who wanted to hug me and they were really annoying…I'm glad I found all of you…By the way, who are they?"

Subaru pointed the second-years out in sequence. "Honoka Kosaka-" the energetic girl waved. "Kotori Minami-" the ash-blonde girl smiled. "-and Umi Sonoda." The regal girl just bowed her head.

Caro straightened for a second, and Subaru knew Teana had just mentally messaged her something about those three being important.

"So what are you guys doing?" Caro asked.

"We're thinking about saving the school! Shizuka-chan, you can join us if you want!"

"She's the only one doing that," Umi muttered.

"Uhh, thanks, Kosaka-senpai…" Caro sat down. "Lunch is almost over, isn't it?"

"Yeah, we've got a few minutes though," Umi replied. "I'll go throw my stuff away, though."

As Umi got up, Subaru looked toward the bushes nearby.

It was hard to make out through the foliage, but she was almost certain that there was what looked like a tall, dark shadow standing behind the bushes, completely black except for what appeared to be a red mask on its face. Hurriedly, she turned to her squadmates to see if they'd seen anything. Caro and Teana didn't appear to be disturbed at all, so she knew she was the only one that had seen it.

She turned back and there was no one there. Her mind was racing with questions. She was sure she had seen someone just seconds ago…but how had they disappeared so fast?

Fate had warned against enemies, but she wasn't even sure what to make of this one.

Shaking her head, she went back to her lunch and tried to keep as normal an expression as possible.

* * *

 _Later that night_

One of the best parts about living in a house over her parents' candy store was that Honoka Kosaka got to eat sweets a lot. Of course, she tended to gain weight from that, but she wasn't really overweight so it was a small price to pay for how delicious they were.

However, she couldn't eat them all the time, even though she wanted to. Her parents made her eat normal food as well, as were on her plate at dinner. She was busy slowly spooning peas into her mouth and trying to look like she was at least indifferent about them, even though she hated everything green.

Her mother, who Honoka had gotten most of her looks from, sat across the table from her. To the left was her little sister Yukiho, who took after her father (sitting at the head of the table) more. In contrast to Honoka's happy-go-lucky personality, Yukiho seemed to be way more concerned with responsibility than any girl her age should be. She was the grown-up one. Honoka's parents would always compare the two, and it was starting to annoy her.

 _Sure, 'she's responsible', 'you need to be like your sister more', sure. I get that already. Can't I just be myself for once?_

It wasn't that big of a deal though. Yukiho had her flaws, and so did Honoka.

And one of those flaws was vegetables. Honoka's little sister hated them even more than she herself did.

"Yuki, eat your peas," Honoka's mother commanded as Yukiho looked down at the vegetables with an expression of complete disgust. It was funny seeing Ms. Young Adult finally show that she was, in fact, a middle school student. Honoka wanted to see more of that.

"Honoka," her dad said, in his usual gruff voice, "how's school going?"

"Well," the ginger second-year looked down at her plate, "Headmaster Minami said they're going to be closing the school after this year. I don't know what I'm going to do…"

Honoka's mother looked as downcast as her daughter. "I hate to hear that. I loved it so much when I went there-" Honoka's mother was the president of the Otonokizaka alumni association. Beside her mother, her father chewed on his pork loin, apparently unaffected by the news. "Did you hear that, dear?" her mom asked. "Otonokizaka is closing after this year. We'll need to apply somewhere else for her final year."

"Is that so, Homura?" her dad muttered, unaffected. "Well, that's pretty bad news." His tone of voice showed that he seemed not to care at all.

"Hey, Yukiho," Honoka said curiously, "do you want to apply to Otonokizaka anyways? If you do, maybe you can convince your friends and we can get enough applications and save the school!"

"Sorry, Onee-chan," she muttered, "I'm already going to apply to UTX."

UTX again. There it was. Honestly, what did UTX have that was so great compared to Otonokizaka? Why was it taking all of Otonokizaka's prospective students?

"Darling," her mother said, "I'll have to talk to Mikoto about this…I had no idea she was planning to shut the school down before poor Kotori-chan finished.

Her father grunted in reply. Honoka wasn't paying any attention, though. How could she figure out why everyone wanted to go to UTX? How?

A sudden flash of inspiration crossed her mind.

"Mom, Dad," she asked, suddenly standing up from the table and pushing her chair in, "can I go over to UTX tomorrow and check it out? To see if I might want to transfer there if the school closes. Of course, that's not going to happen, but it's nice if I have a backup plan."

"Honoka," her mother said with concern, "you can't just go by yourself."

"I emknow that," Honoka huffed. "I'll text one of my friends and see if they can go. Tomorrow's Saturday, anyways."

Unfortunately, Honoka had no luck with either of her friends. Kotori was going to see her grandmother in Akita, and Umi had to clean out her parents' judo dojo. She didn't know of anyone else she could talk to and ask to go.

 _I know! Subaru and Hibiki!_ She was fortunate she had asked for their phone numbers the first day of school. _But which one…_

After a quick deliberation, she decided she would ask Subaru first. No offense to Hibiki, but she seemed to get along with Subaru better. Hibiki was more Umi's type.

Nervously, she pressed the keys on her phone's touchscreen. This would be the first time texting the American-born girl, so she was a bit nervous. Slowly, she tapped out:

"Subaru-chan, I'm going to UTX tomorrow to check it out for my sister. Do you want to go too? We can get something to eat on the way back, or go to the arcade or something…it'll be fun!"

To her surprise, the reply came back: "No prob! Just let me ask Fate about it..."

"Fate said it's ok! What time?"

 _Fate must be her guardian or something. Wait, does she mean Fate like our English teacher? Nope, no way._

She texted back "How about 1 PM?"

"Yeah, I can do that! I have to go now, see you tomorrow!"

For the first time since that morning, Honoka felt happy. She was growing closer to Subaru, she was making steps toward finding out things about her little sister, and maybe, just maybe she could figure out what to do to save their school after all.

* * *

 _Next afternoon_

The square in Chiyoda was crowded, as Tokyo always is, although the flowing rivers of people were a bit less numerous than on a weekday. Many of the businessmen and women rushing to their next job were home today, so there was enough space for Subaru to make out the shape of her friend approaching.

And true to her word, Honoka appeared, running through the crowd to reach Subaru, who was standing against a lamppost at the center of the square. Honoka dodged a couple lines of people and then came to a stop next to her new friend. "Subaru-chan! Sorry I'm late!"

Her casual outfit was rather nice, Subaru thought. It looked like something she might wear; not too fancy, and free-flowing enough for movement. She caught the Japanese girl's eyes flicking over her outfit. "Hey, Subaru-chan, isn't that shirt a bit too short?"

Subaru looked down. Showing skin wasn't that big of a problem for her, but since she had been warned that this country saw any midriff exposure as indecent, she made sure her shirt was enough to cover her belly, but it did ride up when she raised her arms. Whatever. She wasn't embarrassed.

"Come on, let's go," Subaru said excitedly. "Where's UTX anyways?"

"It should be around this corner," Honoka said, reading off her phone as they walked. "It's past the Tamachi train station, and then at the intersection of highway 409 with the Minato road…there should be a post office and a grocery store next to it."

They took a left, and a large, glass and metal box loomed ahead of them. It had to be at least eleven stories high.

"Is that it?" Subaru gasped.

"Yeah, it says it is," Honoka replied, trying to keep her own mouth from falling open. "No way they go to school in that!"

The two had migrated over underneath the large building, and Subaru, noticing a video screen and music playing, pointed to it. "What's that?"

Honoka looked up as well. Three girls were dancing on-screen to a remarkably catchy tune. It was impressive how fluidly they moved and danced.

"Who are they?" Subaru mused, completely unaware of the small figure who had come to stand next to her.

"Ha! You don't know A-RISE?" Subaru turned to see a small girl (or at least she assumed it was) with jet-black twintails, wearing a heavy gray overcoat and sunglasses, with a mask over her face. She looked strange. Was she in a costume, or was she sick, or what? Yet another thing about this country she didn't understand.

"A-RISE?" Honoka looked confused.

"Seriously, I can't believe you two…" she muttered. "A-RISE are the ones up on that screen. They're the winners of the first two Love Live competitions and they singlehandedly saved their school from shutting down! They got popular enough and now everyone wants to go to UTX because of them! I applied, but I got rejected…" the girl growled.

"Love Live? What's that?" Honoka asked.

"Look it up yourself," the other girl snapped.

Honoka brought up her phone, tapped a couple times and began to read. "The Love Live…a competition to find the best amateur idol group in Japan…beginning with thousands, progressing through the regional competitions it will end with only one. The finals will be held in the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. First place prizes are…a trophy…a lifetime supply of free Lantis records…a record label deal with Lantis and ONE MILLION YEN?!"

"Subaru-chan, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Honoka's cornflower eyes had lit up. One million yen could likely keep their school afloat for several more years.

"Let's be idols! Let's get Kotori-chan, and Umi-chan, and Hibiki-chan too! Let's save the school, as school idols!"

Part of Subaru wondered why she should care so much. She wouldn't be here after one year. She wouldn't get to see the school stay alive, if it even did. Still, the part inside of her that cared about her new friends wanted them to be happy.

"Okay. I'll do it."

"Yes!" Honoka exclaimed, grasping Subaru's hands in hers tight and pulling her close. "We're going to be the best idols possible!"

 _What will Fate think?_

* * *

"They all turned us down," Honoka moaned.

When Honoka, full of excitement, had brought the idea of an idol group up at the previous day's lunch, they hadn't gotten any takers on the idea except for Subaru. Kotori had politely declined, and Umi had told them that the idea was ridiculous. Teana hadn't said anything, and they didn't know where Caro was at all.

So the morning after their idea was shot down, Honoka and Subaru were practicing alone at the top of a set of concrete steps just outside the school. It was early in the morning, so they didn't have to worry about traffic.

Surprisingly, when Subaru told Fate, her superior officer had laughed a little and told her to go for it. Subaru definitely didn't expect that kind of reaction.

"Honoka, are you really sure you know what we're supposed to be practicing?"

"Yes, I do!" the hyperactive girl replied. She pulled out a few sheets of paper from her backpack. "This right here is the dance to Perfume's 'Laser Beam'! This is AKB48's 'River' dance! And this…" she pulled another sheet of paper out, "are the steps to A-RISE's very own 'Private Wars'!"

Subaru had zero clue what any of those were, but she knew from experience the best things to do were to smile and nod.

"Okay! Let's study them for a few minutes and then try them out!" Honoka beamed.

It was pretty hard to get the grip of dance moves on paper. After studying them, Subaru thought she had at least one of them down, but immediately fell the first time she tried one. She was athletic, but this idol thing took more skill than she thought. Honoka wasn't having a good time herself. She was shaky in her movements, but she was hitting more fluid combinations of moves than Subaru. emShe must have practiced before, Subaru thought.

The two continued for a few more minutes when Honoka stopped to check the time on her phone. "Oh, Kotori-chan!" she waved. "We're practicing!"

Honoka looked down to see Kotori standing there; she had been watching them for what she guessed was a longer time than just a few seconds. "Do your best!" she called out to them.

A few seconds later, Umi walked up. "What are they doing…" she muttered, loud enough for the two at the top of the stairs to hear.

"Look! They're trying their best!" Kotori exclaimed. "They are serious about this! Umi-chan, don't you want to join them? It looks so fun!"

"Like I said yesterday, no I don't."

"What if I join them?"

"I still won't."

"Suit yourself, then. I'm going up there to join them." By this time, Subaru and Honoka had stopped, totally engrossed on the conversation below them.

"No! Do you know how ridiculous you're being?"

"Look at _her_!" Kotori exclaimed, in a tone that surprised Subaru a little. "Look at how much she's enjoying it! Are you saying seeing your best friend happy doesn't make you happy? Not even a little?" She immediately turned and walked up the stairs toward Honoka and Subaru.

"Fine! Okay!" Umi replied strongly. "I'll do it! That's what you wanted, isn't it? I'll be an idol! I'll be serious about it! I'll do it!"

She stormed up the stairs and confronted Honoka, her face less than a few centimeters from her friend.

"Honoka, please let me be an idol with you." She bowed her head after she asked.

"Me too!" Kotori did the same thing.

In her mind, Subaru turned on her telepathic communication and reached out to find Teana.

 _Tea!_

 _What is it…_

 _Come quickly! There's something going on that you need to see!_

 _Okay, I'll be over but this had better not be a prank…_

Honoka was speechless for a moment. Then she cried out, "Of course! Thank you for being school idols with me, Kotori-chan, Umi-chan!"

The two smiled a bit after hearing their friend praise them.

"Honoka," Subaru said, piping up, "we're forgetting someone. I know someone else who wants to join."

"Okay!" Honoka smiled. "I know who you're talking about…we'll give her the welcome she needs!"

Four minutes later, when Teana arrived, breathless, she turned to the group up the stairs to ask what this was all about.

But before she could opened her mouth, she was drowned out by the four schoolgirls saying as one: "HIBIKI! BE A SCHOOL IDOL WITH US!"

* * *

"Absolutely not."

The student council president forked the club application back over to the five disappointed girls as they stared glumly at it.

"First off, you have to have five eligible students. Exchange students are not eligible due to the fact that the school counts them as already participating in a club. Therefore, you only have three eligible students.

"Secondly, our school has a bit of integrity to uphold. That does not include silly, childish dances and bubblegum pop. I don't want any perverted idol otaku at our school, and I certainly don't want such a black mark on our school's reputation as a superior music school.

"Trust me, we are doing the best we can here at the student council to save this school from closure. When you are ready to present me with a serious idea, I'll consider it. For now, leave," the blonde girl spat, gazing upon them with her ice-blue stare.

The five trudged dejectedly out of the student council room. As they went, the vice president passed them, her long purple trellises fanning out from her body.

"Um, excuse me!" Honoka piped up. The vice president stopped. "Is there any way we can get the student council to reconsider?"

"Sorry," the vice president grinned. "Rules are rules. Maybe you should try bringing it when Elicchi's in a better mood, though." She turned down the hallway and continued.

"Well, that was disappointing," Umi sighed as the five girls made their way back out of the courtyard. "Maybe I was right."

"It's okay," Honoka smiled, still dejected. "We'll just have to get better. We'll get more members, and we'll show the student council president that we are serious!"

"What about a composer and a songwriter?" Teana piped up.

"Well, ehm," Honoka smiled sheepishly. "I'm working on that!"

As Umi leaned over and sighed, her backpack fell from her shoulders. A small blue notebook dropped out of it, which she had accidentally left unzipped.

"Umi-chan, are you okay?" Honoka cried as she bent over to help her friend pick up the supplies.

Then, her hand hovered over the blue notebook and she grasped it. "What's this?"

"Honoka! Give that back!" Umi exclaimed, bristling.

In response, the ginger girl flipped it open. "What's in here…Lyrics?"

She giggled. "Ehehe- I guess you wanted to do this all along, didn't you?"

Umi had turned red, unable to get out even a word.

"It looks like we found a songwriter!" Honoka said happily. "I know! This one looks like a good song! Let's all sing it together!"


	5. The Path to Our Dreams

_Zenkai no_ :

Honoka, Kotori, Umi, Teana, and Subaru become school idols! However, lots of obstacles stand in their way, including a not-so-impressed student council president. Will they be able to succeed, or will they crash and burn?

* * *

The room with a long, U-shaped configuration of tables was frigid when Eli Ayase entered, opening the door slowly so as not to upset the stacks of papers positioned on the tables. She wasn't a huge fan of the cold, but Russia was colder in April. She would live. Sitting herself down in her chair at the exact center of the tables, she blew into her hands to warm them before taking a look at the papers. Although they had gotten through quite a lot in the last meeting, the start of the school year was when the student council was absolutely swamped with requests and forms. She had gotten off of cleaning duty early to get some work done; she preferred doing it by herself. She got things done faster that way.

Flipping over the first sheet of paper in the stack that she had marked "club requests" the previous day, she looked it over briefly before flipping it into one of the two boxes on the table, marked "Approved". She continued with this before the door slammed open and her vice president and best friend entered, carrying more papers. Nozomi had her normal knowing grin on her face, which seemed harmless enough but Eli knew better from three years. She had to be plotting something. _As always_.

Eli barely looked up from checking her papers. "Any mail for me?"

"Only a couple more love letters," Nozomi smirked. She slid a couple envelopes down onto Eli's desk. The half-Russian's eyes grew wide for a little bit before she frowned and ripped them in half.

"When will these people get it and stop sending me confessions? It happened last year, it happened the year before, and I'm still getting them! I mean, I just don't understand…back home, they used to call me 'the iceberg'…"

"Just accept it. You're popular."

"I don't want to be popular. I want to be the best at my job. If people don't like me, tough."

"Well, they do like you."

"I'm not so sure about that…" Eli sighed and went back to her papers. Nozomi dropped a somewhat smaller stack on the table beside her.

"These are some more club-related forms," she said, straightening her green third-year bow. "I'll take the equipment and facility requests, if you don't mind."

"Uh, sure," Eli replied. The two fell silent again, each checking over the forms that they had been given before placing them in either the plastic tray marked "Approved" or "Not Approved". In its own way, the monotony was kind of relaxing. At least it wasn't like later in the year yet, when she'd have to be studying for entrance exams on top of it all.

She silently perused the forms. _Basketball club transfer…approved. Geography club president…approved. Jazz club formation…5 members, approved. School idol club…_

"Are you kidding me?!" she yelled, standing up so suddenly that even Nozomi looked a little surprised.

"What is it, Elicchi?" her friend muttered.

"It's these idol kids again! I thought I told them why I wouldn't be accepting their request!" She balled up the application and threw it forcefully toward the trash can. It bounced off the rim and went in.

"They actually do have a good idea, at least for me," Nozomi commented.

"It's a stupid idea. It's not going to get us any more new students. It's just going to get us a bunch of 30 year old perverts peering in the windows. And besides, I can't stand idols. Whenever I see AKB48 on tv it makes me want to vomit. _Ovratitel'no_."

"Speak for yourself," Nozomi replied. "I think it'll work. Girls here actually like idols."

"How could anyone with any self-respect enjoy idol music? You know half of them lip-sync anyways, and the other half are bad at singing. They don't do anything but look cute, and anyone could do that."

"Alright, alright," Nozomi sighed. "I get why you think that way. I really do. But you know, it's up to the students anyways. It might not be a bad idea to judge what they think about this idol thing. Apparently class 2-4's all fired up about it because the ringleaders are in there."

"No," Eli said forcefully. "There will be no gauging of interest, there will be no club approval, and there will be no idols. I believe I already made this clear. Our school, despite what hard times it's fallen on, deserves better than such lowbrow entertainment."

As the two fell silent, looking back to their work, the thought entered Eli's head that maybe Nozomi had a point after all. _The best idols are famous…if those girls get famous, it'll increase our popularity…and if we get more popular, we'll get more students…No! What am I thinking?_ She shook her head quietly. She loved her school, and she wanted more than anything in the world to keep it going for another year or more. It wasn't just her; everyone in the student council wanted it too. She had built so many memories in Otonokizaka's halls with Nozomi and everyone else…taking it all away would probably break her heart.

But she had standards, and those standards didn't include idols.

As she brooded, she unzipped the top pocket of her backpack, and took out a golden chain of a necklace, with a cross, double-barred on the top and a single bar on the bottom, and pressed it against her chest, closing her eyes.

It was the last thing her grandmother had left her, five years ago. Irina Semyonova was a very religious woman. Her granddaughter was not. Regardless of its symbolism, the necklace still comforted Eli. It made her think of her grandmother's kind voice, the sweets she baked, the way Eli could always talk to her about everything, the way she'd call her "Elichika" and tousle her hair…

"When you hold this necklace," her grandmother once told her, "and you pray, God will answer you. It may not be the answer you want, but it will be the one you need."

Those were the last words she ever heard from her grandmother, and Eli was left again with no one who truly understood her.

Babushka Irina, _what should I do?_ she thought, holding the necklace tight against herself. _What should I do about these girls? What's the answer?_

* * *

"Idol? Y-you never told me it would involve singing and getting up on stage and things like that…I have stage fright, and I'm bad at singing!" Caro was so upset, she looked like she was about to hyperventilate. The six had decided to eat inside, in the downstairs area by the office that day, since it was raining and there was something important they were waiting on, and Caro had just found out what exactly Subaru meant last night by asking her to become a "school idol".

"It's okay, it's okay," Subaru nervously hugged her younger squadmate, trying hard to avoid a meltdown, especially since there were two sets of glaring eyes fixed on her.

"How could you possibly forget that being an idol involves singing?" Umi grumbled.

"Don't ask me. Until last week she thought apples grew on pine trees," Teana sighed.

"They don't?" Honoka interjected.

Ignoring the clueless ginger, the other two turned back to Subaru. The past couple of days had seen the three second-years and the two TSAB agents become surprisingly popular. Honoka had been blabbing on and blabbing on about the idol group, but interestingly, it seemed like their classmates wanted to hear it. Or maybe not. Maybe they were just being polite.

Nonetheless, Subaru knew someone she wanted to join the group, in order to make sure the TSAB agents could keep a better eye on these three. All it took was saying "They're important" to Caro to get her to join. Unfortunately, she had no idea that being an idol was basically her worst fear come to life, and Subaru didn't really help it with the explanation.

"Alright, Car- Shizuka-chan. It's okay," Teana moved forward and patted Caro on the head. "We'll all be with you and we won't let anyone bully you." Caro's panicked expression almost instantly disappeared, and she sat back down, calm again.

 _Tea, you're a lifesaver…_

"That's right!" Honoka yelled. "If anyone's mean to you, we'll gang up on them and make them cry instead!"

"Honoka, I think you've got your priorities wrong…" Umi muttered.

They were interrupted by a running figure coming down the hallway. "Everyone! Good news!" Kotori cried. "We got permission to use the auditorium in a month!"

"All right!" Honoka yelled, loud enough it made some of the other students eating in the hallway stop and look. "Now we just have to plan!"

"I'll make some posters," Kotori said, drawing out a couple pieces of paper and some pencils from her backpack.

"Okay! You're good at drawing anyways. Now-"

"I think you've got no idea what planning means," Umi interjected. "What about the costumes and the stage decorations? Do we have a composer? Do we have a backing track? Do we have a song? Do we even have a name?"

"Um, well, Kotori will make the costumes," (Kotori nodded in agreement) "we can hold a contest for our name, we'll use your lyrics, and…"

"No, we won't! I'm not letting anyone hear those!"

"But they were so good…"

"No!"

"Please?"

"No!"

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?" Honoka put on her best puppy dog eyes.

"Okay, fine! You win!" Umi harrumphed. Reluctantly she handed over the notebook with her song lyrics in it. "I'm doing this because I want to, though. Understand?"

"Yeah!" Honoka smiled.

"Now, about that composer," Teana muttered.

There was piano music coming from above them. There had to be. It was faint, but Caro could clearly make out someone plucking a melody on the ivories.

No one else appeared to hear it, though. The others were just talking like nothing had ever happened. However, Honoka appeared to be cocking her head towards the ceiling. Hesitantly, Caro stared at Honoka, and her indigo caught the older student's sapphire before Caro slowly moved her head toward the roof and Honoka nodded.

Honoka grabbed her by the hand and quickly stood up. "Sorry, guys! We both have to go use the bathroom!" before dragging Caro behind her as she headed toward the source of the noise.

 _No time to explain! I'll be back soon, I promise!_ Caro neuro-communicated to her squadmates before running to keep up with the speed that Honoka was going.

"Shizuka-chan, did you hear it too?" Honoka beamed, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah, it was a piano, but I don't know why you're so curious about it…" the young dragon summoner replied.

"Don't you get it? I think we've found a composer!"

Caro could only nod in agreement as they climbed the stairs. The second level, full of club rooms (the classrooms were on the third floor) was practically deserted, and the music was growing louder. As they slowed down, Honoka pressed up against the wall and creeped along, and Caro walked slowly. They didn't want anyone to know they were peeping in, but the curiosity was just too much.

Finally, they reached a door labeled "Music Club" with a glass sheet in the window. Honoka dropped to her knees; Caro was short enough that she barely looked over the window anyways. The height of her hat that she wore in Barrier Jacket mode took a good four inches off her height anyways.

What Caro saw when she peered into the door shocked her. There, sitting at a grand piano and playing it superbly, was a beautiful figure she remembered from every day in class, and her first day at school.

 _Nishikino-san?_

Her voice seemed as lovely as herself to Caro, as it floated out through the clubroom door. She was singing a song about love or something like that…the chorus went "aishiteru banzai" or something like that. She thought, at least.

"Shizuka-chan, who's that?" Honoka whispered, also peering into the window.

"Maki Nishikino," Caro replied. "She's in my class."

"Oh, so that's our future composer's name…"

The two were so transfixed by the music, they didn't notice when it had stopped until the door opened and Maki was standing over them, her shadow blocking them out.

For a second Caro thought she would be angry, but instead she looked confused.

"Takigawa-san? And who's this?" she asked, gesturing toward Honoka.

"Um, I'm Honoka Kosaka from 2-4! Would you like to join my-"

"No," Maki replied, and in one single stride set off down the hallway.

Honoka and Caro could only watch as the pretty redhead disappeared around a corner.

* * *

 _Later that day_

Umi cleared her throat as she stood at the top of the stairs, the sidewalk of which climbed them before fronting a park and disappearing around a shrine in the distance. "Okay. It seems like you guys don't have much idea of the amount of stamina being an idol requires. So I've come up with a training program to build it up. You guys just take a lap around the park and the shrine and come back to here. Try to keep a good pace."

"Aww…" Honoka moaned. "I don't want to run! Can't we do something fun instead, like dancing?"

"Get down and do 10 pushups," Umi replied.

"Huh?"

"I said, get down and do 10 pushups. Is it really that hard to understand?"

"Okay, I'll try…" Honoka said. She got down on her feet and hands, lowered her body a little bit, and immediately gritted her teeth and grunted and strained as she attempted to pull it back to its starting position. Finally, she managed to prop herself back up. "One!"

Umi slapped her hand over her face. "See what I mean?"

"That's no fair!" Honoka moaned, standing back up. "I bet you can't do ten, either!"

Dutifully, Umi got down in the position, dropped her body towards the ground, and then sprung it back up high enough to clap while her body was in the air before catching the ground and immediately carrying the momentum into another pushup.

 _That's impressive_ , Teana thought. _She has such good form…she looks like a TSAB Marine._

"Okay! Fine, I get it!" Honoka cried. "I'm gonna go run!"

The ginger girl immediately got up and began to jog up the stairs. Kotori followed, a few seconds later, then Caro, and Umi behind her, although the latter was moving at a faster pace than all of the others.

This wouldn't be a big deal for Teana, as she was a TSAB agent. She'd ran farther distances than this before. All in all, on a different note she was really glad Fate had remembered to pack training clothes for them all today. She'd almost forgot.

As she stepped to the top of the stairs and prepared to begin running, her best friend sidled up alongside her. _Race?_ she neuro-communicated, winking.

 _This is supposed to be a warmup- Hey! You cheater!_

Subaru had already taken off, and Teana was forced to play catchup from the beginning. The two ran, one orange blur, one blue, through the park and around the block, past a dumbfounded jogging Umi, past grandmothers walking dogs, and past a bewildered priest who had just come out to tend to the garden.

Subaru had always been faster than Teana in grade school, so the orange-haired second year was determined to beat her best friend. Just once was good enough. But she had never quite managed it.

Teana approached the finish line, or more precisely the stairs which they had started from. Ahead of her, Subaru was starting to slow down. _I can do it…Come on, legs! Run faster!_ She pumped and pumped, striding across the concrete, but as she crossed the first stairstep, Subaru had already gotten there.

The two immediately dropped to their knees, panting. "Looks like…I win…again…" Subaru huffed.

"That's only…because…you cheated…" Teana replied, out of breath as well.

Another set of footsteps came up behind them. "Geez, what did I tell you about pacing yourself?" Umi complained.

"Sorry…" Subaru muttered. "Too much…fun…"

A few minutes later, and Honoka and Kotori emerged, both gasping for air despite jogging at a very slow pace. "See? You're out of shape," Umi had told them when they finished. "We need to work on that."

"Not more running…" Honoka panted.

"Yes, more running!" Umi replied. "We need to build you guys up!"

Honoka dropped to the ground, unable to do anything but catch her breath.

Honestly, Teana wasn't sure what kind of experience she would have in an Earth school. But after the past few weeks with all the people she'd met, she knew for sure.

She had friends. And they had her, too.

* * *

 _Two weeks later_

"What are you doing here again?" Maki Nishikino was obviously not pleased at Honoka showing up outside the music room for the second straight day in a row.

All the idol training was paying off. Honoka, Kotori, and Caro had built up their stamina, and were moving onto a dance routine. Honoka herself had decided to create a name suggestion box and pin it to the bulletin board, where students from each class could suggest a name for their group and they would pick one. Overall, it was a great idea, and one that nobody saw as likely to come out of the brain of the second-year.

However, they still needed a composer, and this one wasn't budging.

"Sorry, Nishikino-san," Caro squeaked out. "It's really important to her, and our group is in need of a composer, so we'd really like it if…"

"How many times do I have to say it? No," Maki replied. "I don't know what's worse: you badgering me every single day or you using Takigawa-san to badger me every single day. She'd never agree to this on her own. Even if you can't help pestering me, don't drag anyone else into this."

"But she did agree to it! Right, Shizuka-chan?" Caro hesitantly nodded yes. She did kind of get dragged into the idol group as a whole, but it was important to Subaru and Tea onee-chan, so it was important to her. It was the best way to keep an eye on their investigation targets, anyways. Even so, she was surprised Maki was defending her so much. She didn't know what exactly her classmate saw in her, other than being small and cute.

"My answer is still no. Come on, Takigawa-san. We're going back to class." Maki strode forward and reached for Caro's hand. Almost immediately, Honoka grabbed her by the arm. "We aren't done yet!"

"What are you, four?" Maki snapped. "She's in the same class as me, and we need to go back! Let go!" She took Caro by the hand and pulled. Almost immediately, Honoka pulled back.

"Um…stop! You're hurting me!" Caro attempted to say, but she was drowned out by the arguing of the second-year and her junior.

A shadow loomed over them, and almost immediately the tugging stopped. Caro looked up to see an imposing figure, one she only recognized from the speech on the school's opening day: the student council president. She was pretty in her own way, but seemed to be surrounded by coldness. It felt like the temperature had dropped.

The blonde girl was looking at the three with an expression of pure confusion. "What's going on here?"

Almost immediately, both of the two let go. Caro breathed a sigh of relief. "Uh, nothing, Ms. President! Nothing!" Honoka said nervously.

"Never mind that," the president sighed. "Kosaka, is this familiar to you?" She reached into her bag and pulled out a red tissue box with a slot in the top. It had been decorated in gold and silver and read, in big glue and glitter characters: "Choose Our Group's Name!"

"Uh, yeah."

"I believe I have told you this before, but only official clubs can use the bulletin board in the main hallway. And I believe I also told you this before, that no matter how many applications you send in, until you get two more members at least, you're not going to be approved. I wish you would just stop. It's embarrassing."

"But we're trying to save the school!" Honoka interjected, suddenly full of confidence.

"And you think I'm not?!" the president replied. Caro winced. She didn't expect such an angry outburst so soon. Beside her, Honoka had fallen silent.

The blonde girl cleared her throat. "I lost my temper there for a second. My apologies. Anyways, just keep this in mind. If your little experiment fails, it'll likely be the final nail in the coffin for this school's reputation, and its attendance as a whole. Anyways, here's this." She handed the red box over to Honoka. "We at the student council have enough on our plates. Don't bother us again."

The second-years and the two first-years were left silent for a minute. Then the bell rang. Honoka quickly said her goodbyes and raced down the hallway to where the second-year classrooms are.

"Shizuka," Maki asked, "why on earth are you running around with her?"

 _Shizuka?_ _That was sudden._

"Well, Nishikino-san, I…"

"It's been a month. You can start calling me Maki now. There's no need to be so formal."

"Okay. So anyways, my friends from the exchange program are part of the group, and I want to do something fun with them. So I guess it's why I chose that."

"I heard about some crazy second-year thinking about starting up an idol group to save the school in my first week. Then I met her for real, and it turns out she's even crazier than I thought."

"Kosaka-senpai is nice, though."

"Nice?" Maki scoffed. "More like a little kid. She wants her way and no one else's, and she won't take no for an answer…she's just a pest."

"That was a bit harsh, Maki-san…"

"Well, sorry for telling the truth. That's gonna come back and bite her one of these days. I guarantee it."

* * *

The class was just clearing out for their cleaning session, of which Honoka made her dislike abundantly clear. She was mopping at the rate of about one tile every minute, and no amount of death glares from Umi could inspire her to start cleaning any faster.

Subaru polished a desk nearby, focusing more on her job than the other students, although she paused to listen to conversations every now and again.

"…well, we're all trying our best!" she heard Honoka giggle. Then she dropped the mop and raced out of the room.

 _What was that all about?_ Subaru thought. Umi was not going to be pleased if her friend ditched cleaning duty.

No less than two seconds later, Kotori put down her Windex and left the room as well. This was getting very curious. Maybe they were getting called to the office…

Three girls were standing next to her when Subaru turned around. _Crap, what are their names again?_ They looked so plain, Subaru had no idea who they were. If the world were a telecom drama, then these girls would be the background characters that were no more than props.

"Um, Mitsumura, Sawabushi…"

"It's Hideko!" one girl said, pointing to herself. The other two followed. "Fumiko! Mika!"

Subaru nodded as they each said their names, although she was sure she'd forget them within five minutes.

"Anyways," the lead girl said, "we've seen how hard you guys are working. We'll do your work for you so you can get out and practice."

"Okay, thanks…" Subaru said in surprise, putting her cloth down. This was unexpected.

"We're all cheering for you! Good luck!" another girl said, before picking up the cloth and working on the desk that Subaru was. Bowing and thanking her unexpected saviors, she picked up her bag and raced out of the room.

Outside, Honoka was standing at the head of a circle, holding the box that had been taken down earlier in the day. "This got taken down, but don't worry! I think we got a lot of name suggestions!"

The six girls peered closely as Honoka turned the box upside down.

Nothing fell out. Honoka's expression changed to surprise. "Huh?"

She shook it a couple times. There was still nothing.

Umi sighed. "I told you it wouldn't work." She grabbed the box out of Honoka's hands, and as she did so a small piece of paper fell toward the ground. "What's this?" Honoka announced, and grabbed it.

She opened the paper and immediately adopted a puzzled look. After cocking her head sideways about a dozen times, she said, "Umi-chan, can you read this?" and showed the paper to her classmates.

On it was a letter, looking like a U but not quite, with a tail extending from both sides, followed by an apostrophe and an S. Subaru couldn't make anything of it. _Who thought that one up?_

"I have no idea," Umi sighed. Kotori shook her head as well.

"Come on, you're supposed to be smart!" Honoka cried.

"That doesn't mean I know everything!" Umi snapped back.

It was silent for a minute before Teana spoke up. "Mu. The twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet. It is used for the scientific prefix _micro-_. In physics, it represents the coefficient of friction. It is derived from-"

"I knew it! Hibiki-chan, you're the best!" Honoka exclaimed, immediately hugging Teana, who didn't look too thrilled about it.

 _Way to read off your Device_ , Subaru thought, a bit peeved she didn't think of using Mach Caliber's search function first.

"Okay, so how exactly is this pronounced?" Kotori piped up. "Mu-apostrophe-s?"

"Mousse?" Honoka conjectured.

"I think it's meows. Like a cat," Teana added.

"Cat?" Umi gasped. "I'm not wearing cat ears! No way! Okay, maybe if you insist…"

All Teana could say was "What?"

"Um, guys? Guys! I think it's _muse_ ," Caro interrupted. She was speaking in a slightly louder tone of voice than what the others were used to. It was a little surprising for her squadmates, including Subaru.

 _Maybe she's passionate about this after all._ Subaru wondered how passionate she, herself, could get. She had only come up with this plan, and included Teana and Caro, because it meant that they could keep an eye on the targets they were investigating at all times. Yet despite her job, Subaru was already enjoying herself, and she was sure Teana was, too, somewhere in that professional mind. Being an idol was actually really fun.

"Muse?" Umi asked. "I think that's a good pronunciation."

"Same here!" Kotori chirped.

"I like it," Teana commented.

"Alright!" Honoka yelled. "We've got ourselves a name!"

"I wonder who suggested it…" Umi muttered. Subaru wondered too. It could have been someone in their class, but if it was their class, then there should have been more than one suggestion. Maybe it was another class. Or maybe…

 _The student council president?_ No, it couldn't be. She hated them, it was pretty clear to see. Or did she?

"Now that it's settled, what are we going to do next?" Teana asked.

"I'll get the composer, and we've got permission to use the gym in two weeks, so Kotori can start on the costumes, and Hibiki, you help her with that, Umi does the lyrics, and me, Subaru, and Shizuka decorate the stage! How about that!"

"No," Umi growled, "right now you're going to run."

"Aw, come on!"

* * *

The music room, which was normally quiet, was Maki's place of refuge. Unlike what the sign above the door said, there was no more Music Club. They had disbanded a couple years ago, although they left all their equipment there. It might have been against school rules for Maki to sneak in and play the piano, but she had not been caught yet, and she was such a good student that she doubted she would get any real punishment.

Her first year as a student of Otonokizaka looked to be getting off to the same start as always. True, she was friendless once again, but why should that matter? She had found someone to talk to, to alleviate her boredom, at school, and otherwise she didn't really care. She had enough interests to keep her occupied, and she much preferred schoolwork to people, as bad as it might sound.

There were quite a few annoying people this year, though. Out of pure dumb luck, she'd managed to end up in the same class as Rin Hoshizora for the sixth year in a row. And where she went, trouble followed.

Then there was that second year. Kosaka…Honoka, was it? She just wouldn't leave her alone. She and her idol group, idol group, idol group…was that all she ever thought about? It wouldn't surprise Maki in the least. She appeared to be of the simpleminded sort.

The door to the music room slammed open, and Maki took one look and groaned. Speak of the devil.

The second-year came rushing up to her piano, which Maki had stopped playing out of annoyance. "If it's about changing my mind, no."

"No, it's not about that. I just wanted to show you something," Honoka said. _It's not that? Then what is it? The only thing she thinks about is her idol group!_

"What?" Maki replied curtly.

"Pull up the window blinds and you'll see."

Maki obliged, pulling the blinds up, and what she saw surprised her a little bit. Five girls were practicing dancing, several panting and puffing. One was caling out steps as the others danced along. It looked like a whole bunch more exertion than she figured.

The girls broke their dance steps and immediately took off on a run around the courtyard.

"I just wanted you to see what we do," Honoka commented. "We are serious about this, I promise."

 _Of course it was about that idol group_ , Maki thought. Still, it had surprised her. There was a lot more effort being put into it than she thought the ginger girl could come up with. And surprisingly, it looked kind of fun.

"And I also wanted you to read these," Honoka continued, handing over a blue notebook. Maki flipped it open. There were characters written in lines, forming a rhythmical pattern… _Are these lyrics?_

She didn't want to admit it, but whoever wrote these could immediately make a hit online. These looked almost as good as some of the big songwriters she had heard about on the internet.

"Who wrote these?" she asked.

"Umi-chan," Honoka replied, pointing to a dark blue-haired girl leading the others in dance steps. She was the group's leader, Maki assumed. She had the makings of a natural born one.

"Tell her I liked them. But…the answer's still no."

Dejected, Honoka nodded and left, and Maki went back to her piano. She started up again with the song that she had written…no. That was wrong.

She stopped and began again. It still sounded off. What was going on?

 _A walk will probably help me calm down._ She got up, and leaving the classroom, started up the hall.

"You should have just told her how you feel," a voice said behind her. Maki whirled to see the student council vice president, Nozomi Tojo, grinning at her.

"What do you mean?" Maki said, bristling. Something hadn't felt right about herself ever since Kosaka had started pestering her.

"You're searching for a purpose in life, aren't you? Don't lie. I can tell if you're lying."

"Um, yeah, I guess so." It was true. Maki didn't know what she wanted to be. Nonetheless, it felt wrong for someone to point it out so callously. "Why's it your business anyways?"

"You're one of the students I watch over. Why wouldn't it be my business?"

"Watch over?"

"It's the student council's job to guide the students. And right now, your mind is telling you one thing but your heart's telling you another, am I right?"

"How do you know about the idol group?" Maki immediately reddened. She had blurted out without thinking.

"Oh, so it's that? They've got a good idea, I should say…Let me give some advice to you. Follow your heart. It's not worth missing out on something because it's outside your comfort zone, is it? You don't care what people think anyways. And I think they might just change you for the better."

"Huh? What do you know about me?" Maki was unnerved. It was like the vice president had read her mind: her thoughts, her doubts, her dreams, they were all there.

Nozomi's grin widened. "I know more than you think."

* * *

 _The next day_

Maki could go more than 24 hours without sleep, but it wasn't a pleasant experience. However, she had something important to do the night before, and electronic music software wasn't something you could easily finish in an hour or less. Besides, Maki was a perfectionist, and she had to revise and revise before she could consider something finished.

The day went normally, without any interruptions or idiots causing problems, but she was on edge the whole day. She had something to do at lunchtime. When the bell rang, she hurried to the music room, where she always went during the period. But she didn't play the piano today. Rather, she waited, waited for someone.

Sure enough, in about fifteen minutes, she saw a red-bowed second-year skip up the hallway. She was in as good a mood as always, but as she came down the hallway, she stopped short as she caught sight of Maki standing outside instead of being inside as she normally was.

Maki was nervous. She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to give in. But she was reaching inside her bag and pulling out a CD. It was like she wasn't in control of herself anymore, or that two separate people were fighting over the controls to her body.

She held the CD out. "This is for you," she muttered, barely above a whisper. Honoka's eyes grew wide as saucers. "But this is the last thing I do for you. Leave me alone after this."

She strode off, nervously breathing. She had done something she had never thought she could do. The back of her mind was filled with the vice president's comments.

And farther back, there was another voice, faint but pressing. _Don't you want to be an idol?_

* * *

 _One week later_

The two students walked down the hallways, carrying their papers between them. Nozomi was blabbing about some sort of gossip. Eli wasn't particularly interested, but she made sure to nod and say things every now and then. That was always Nozomi's interest, not hers.

The second-year teacher workroom was ahead and to the right. They were delivering worksheets, which the teachers would undoubtedly appreciate. Although it wasn't as much as the first week, the student council was still swamped with work. Thankfully, several thorns in their side had stopped, at least for the time being.

As they walked, it came to Eli's attention that Nozomi was no longer beside her. Eli turned around to find her stopped beside the student announcement bulletin board. Unlike the club board, anyone could use this one.

"Elicchi, you're going to want to see this…" Nozomi smirked.

 _Don't tell me it's…_

As Eli scanned the bulletin board, her eyes caught a glimpse of a colorful poster in the center. It had six dancing figures in costume and was decorated in a mosaic of colors.

 _Oh, no._

Her temper rapidly deteriorating, she read it off in her mind. _Friday, May 15, 2013._ _m_ _'_ _s First Live at 4:30 pm…in the MAIN AUDITORIUM?!_

"Nozomi!" she hissed. "You didn't give them permission to use the auditorium, did you?"

"I don't know," her best friend said back. "Maybe someone just wasn't looking and placed it in the wrong basket."

"You better not be lying," Eli said, her anger about to boil over. "This is not going to happen. Absolutely not."

Eli looked as cool as ever on the outside, but inside she was as angry as she could ever be. She could tolerate idiots. But she couldn't tolerate idiots tearing down everything she stood for.

 _You want to go behind my back?! You want to make a fool out of me?! Fine. You got your wish._

 _Just don't come crying to me when I destroy you._

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

Trying to keep to my schedule as much as possible, I bring to you another chapter of my crossover! Sorry if it seems to be stalling; you'll get some hints real soon that everything is not as it appears. For now, I just think the antics of the girls is enough, and of course there might not be a lot of change between universes even with the introduction of four new characters. And for those who want to see Fate, she'll be making an appearance in the next chapter, I promise!

Eli's declared war on the school idols...who will win? I hope that you like the extra fleshing out I've given to the characters. This was one of my main goals in starting this story, and you're going to see a whole lot more of it as we continue. Don't forget, if you like it (or if you don't), please leave a review. I can't improve if I don't have any feedback! Not trying to be nitpicky, of course. I appreciate every single person who's kept with the story so far.

See you next time, and bye for now! New Belka Trilogy chapter coming soon!

-mrcmc888

* * *

 **MAHOU SHOUJO LYRICAL NANOHA IS THE PROPERTY OF MASAKI TSUZUKI, SEVEN ARCS, NBCUNIVERSAL ENTERTAINMENT JAPAN, ANIPLEX, KING RECORDS, AND A-1 PICTURES, AND LOVE LIVE! SCHOOL IDOL PROJECT IS THE PROPERTY OF DENGEKI BUNKO, LANTIS RECORDS, BANDAI VISUAL, SUNRISE, AND NIS AMERICA. I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING RELATED TO EITHER SERIES. PLEASE SUPPORT THE OFFICIAL RELEASES WHENEVER POSSIBLE.**


	6. Our First Shining Moment

**Zenkai no:**

u's has all the preparations for their first concert finished! But will it be a success? And will the mystery of the magical reactions be solved anytime soon?

* * *

Honoka woke up in a cold sweat.

She could hear the rain tapping on the window, and in the distance thunder would occasionally rhythmically boom and flashes and bolts would light up the sky. As her eyes adjusted to the dark of her room, she checked every corner frantically, scanning and focusing. Gradually the pounding of her heartbeat ceased and her breathing slowed.

It had all been a dream. There was no one else there but herself.

She couldn't even remember what she had dreamed, but obviously it was some sort of nightmare. Honoka rarely had them, but when she did they were intense and terrifying. But this one was different; while all her other nightmares were vivid, there was not a single thing about this one she could recall, other than the overwhelming feeling of fright.

Breathing out calmly, she attempted to settle herself and try to get back to sleep. It was three in the morning; she couldn't function if she didn't get enough rest at night. The ginger second-year slid back down into the covers and pulled them up over her body, holding onto her pillow tightly.

As soon as she closed her eyes, a spasm of pain wracked her from head to foot, running down her spine like a column of fire. She attempted to flail to her feet but could barely move her limbs, they were in such pain. It was getting harder to breathe; she gasped for air but could not take any in. A steady hum which went to an earsplitting whine filled her head. Her eyesight was beginning to blot out. It was like nothing she had ever experienced before.

By some miracle, she managed to roll out of her bed and fall on her feet, but another pain lit her and she fell to the floor, unable to hold her own weight. All of her senses were completely faded; she could no longer see or hear.

The pain seemed to fade out, and she was seeing things, but it was not her in the eyes she was looking through. She had no control over this person, she felt. As the fog and spots faded, she saw a desolate, barren grassy plain, with smoke so thick she could barely see five meters ahead. All above her and to the sides were flashes of color, jets of fire, screams…this was not a place Honoka recognized.

She looked down. Those were her arms, but they had plates of what looked like black metal on them, lined with bright red. From her side, a heavy object hung, but she couldn't turn her head to see what it was. The grass around her was burnt in some places and covered with dark brown splotches; only a small amount retained its original green.

As she looked around in confusion and fear, she heard a voice, broken and weak, moaning: "Stella…help me…"

She, or rather who she was observing, whipped her head around frantically to see who was the source. The voice sounded uncannily familiar.

Then her eyes caught on the body of a girl, dressed in the same red and black armor as she seemed to have on, lying on the ground, grimacing in pain. Her hair was spread out around her head, and her eyes were closed as she held her hands to her side. A silver bow lay on the ground beside, its quiver and arrows strewn next to it. In shock, Honoka realized that the girl's hands were covered in blood, and as she looked down…She had no leg beneath the knee. Her right leg was no longer there; only a stump remained.

This time, she could clearly see the girl speak. It was louder this time. "Stella…find Rose…I don't have much longer…please…help me…"

She knew that voice. She knew that face.

She was coming off the ground, taking off, her feet running over to the body on the ground. She was trying to cry out, to open her mouth, to yell "Umi-chan!", but all she could do was watch.

As she reached the girl, her teeth unclenched and her face turned to the side. Her arms slumped off her wound, and the horror of what Honoka saw brought her back to reality.

She was standing in the middle of her room, her clothing ripped in places. It was as if a tsunami had hit. All of her stuffed animals and items were strewn across the floor. Some were intact, others were completely destroyed. Her blankets were thrown in all directions, there was ripped paper on the floor as well, and a lamp had hit the floor and shattered. Her eyes darted in terror and confusion, and her breathing grew heavy as she tried to process all of what she had been through: what had happened while she had been gone, that horrible vision of Umi in so much pain…

Not even caring if she woke anyone up with the noise, she ran to the bathroom and vomited into the toilet.

* * *

The next day

Umi Sonoda walked into the classroom, shivering a bit. She was still a little bit cold from having to walk to the main building from the archery range; the temperature always swung as summer began. Yesterday it had been warm and pleasant, but today it felt like February again.

As she took her seat, she noticed that the classroom was oddly quiet for this time of day. She should have been hearing a couple of idiots, first off. Instead, it was all normal talking.

"Morning, Umi-chan!" a high voice chirped. She turned around to see Kotori smiling.

"Hi, Kotori," she replied. "Is Honoka not here? I haven't heard her today…"

"Nope, she's just confusing the you-know-what out of me…" another, lower voice said. As Teana fiddled with her orange pigtail, she pointed at the desk where Honoka sat. Startled, Umi noticed that Honoka was actually sitting at her seat, but her eyes were glazed over and she was staring at Umi with an expression of what she could only describe as fear.

"Honoka?" she asked hesitantly.

It took her a second, but Honoka suddenly snapped to attention and put on a smile. "Hey, Umi-chan! I was wondering where you were!" However, it wasn't her usual energy.

Behind her, she heard footsteps, and a loud, happy voice. "Finally, everyone's here! I can't believe the concert is actually tomorrow!" Subaru was cheerful as usual.

"Yeah, time has flown," Kotori mused. "We're ready though!"

"Everything's set," Teana added. "I think we're ready to go. We've had enough practice. A little too much, if you ask me…"

"Well, sorry that Kotori and Honoka are out of shape," Umi scoffed, twiddling her hair around her finger.

"Less running, more actual idol stuff," Subaru commented.

"You guys are the ones that forced it all on me…"

"Nah, you wanted to do it! I had all sorts of exercises planned out, too! Russian barbell lifts, kickboxing, 10 squats of 50…"

"If you had been making the exercise plan, at least two of us would be in the hospital from overexertion," Teana retorted.

Subaru pouted, than spoke up again. "Hey, what's with Honoka?"

"Um…n-nothing! It's nothing! I'm totally fine!" she exclaimed, jumping up from her desk to join her friends in a rather unnatural way. Just that told Umi that her best friend wasn't totally fine. Honoka Kosaka was as terrible a liar as one could possibly be.

"Honoka, is something wrong?" Umi asked.

"No, I'm fine," she replied softly. Umi didn't press further as the bell rang and the second-years went to their seats.

Seeing Honoka like this worried her, especially since the idol concert was the next day. Umi still wasn't sure if she was ready. It was something she still didn't know if she was comfortable doing. She had stage fright from a very early age; as a little girl, she was clumsy and had a speech impediment, so she tried to be as far away from the spotlight as she possibly could. Even after she grew out of both, she still had not gotten over her aversion to attention. And on top of that, she had just never tried to sing before. She knew everyone in u's had practiced the song they were going to perform many times, getting the harmonization correct. There weren't any fancy singing techniques or anything like that, but none of them had ever done it before so it was to be expected. Still, in the group she tried not to stand out, but in a concert eyes would be on her as well as her friends.

Then there was the issue with her family. She had not told her parents she wanted to be an idol yet; they were of the very traditional sort, and she doubted they'd approve. After all, they'd trained her in archery and judo and dancing for so many years, pushed her to try to go to middle school championships…it would be insulting to them, she thought, if she told them she was going to abandon all that to focus on dancing in skimpy costumes. Not only that, it would be insulting to all that they'd sacrificed for her.

And she didn't even make the decision on her own. She only joined because Kotori and Honoka, and Subaru and Hibiki and Shizuka, were all so enthusiastic about it. Maybe it was the wrong decision after all.

As school droned on, she became more resolute in her decision.

Class was over, and as soon as she picked up her school bag, her friends greeted her. "Come on, let's go get the auditorium set up!" Kotori crowed.

Added Subaru, "I texted Shizuka. She's on her way."

The others started off, but Umi remained. Honoka, who seemed to have cheered up a bit since the morning, looked over her shoulder. "Eh? Umi-chan, are you coming?"

She had to say it now. Umi bent down and cried, "I'm sorry everyone. I can't do it!"

There was a confused group of mumbles from the other members of u's.

"How come?" Kotori asked.

"Well, I have stage fright and I'll be too scared to perform in front of people so I'll just mess all of you up…"

"That's easy to fix!" Kotori chirped, reaching into her backpack and pulling out a stack of papers. They looked to be advertisements. "I knew you had that problem for a long time. All you have to do is go hand these out to some pedestrians in Akihabara, and you'll get used to big crowds in no time!"

Umi was a bit surprised that Kotori had figured that out.

"Don't worry. I heard you sing our song in the shower, so I know you can do it!"

Umi blushed bright red. "W-w-w-w-when did you…"

"I was looking through your windows with binoculars to get your measurements for your costume…it wasn't exact but I think I did a pretty good job!"

Umi's mouth now hung agape.

"You do know you can go to jail for that, don't you?" Hibiki flatly commented.

"Eh?" Kotori replied.

"Um…" Honoka started, trying to get the conversation back on track. "How about Kotori and Subaru paint the banner that we hang over the stage, and I hang streamers, Shizuka tests the boom box, and Umi and Hibiki dust off and mark the stage. Sound good to you?"

The group of friends set off, and when they were at the auditorium, Caro was already there, waiting to greet them. The small, pink-haired first year waved at them as they entered.

"Okay, first off, let's get the curtain up…" Teana mused. "Wait, does anyone know how to?"

There was silence among the six girls.

"I'll try pulling it up," Subaru volunteered. She immediately jumped onto the stage and tugged at the gold rope on the side of the dark blue curtain as hard as she could, grunting and straining. "This is a tough one…" she huffed out. The curtain wasn't budging even a centimeter.

"I think that rope is just for show-" Umi blurted out.

"I'm not giving up now!" Subaru shouted. "Oryaaaaaaaaaaa!" She leaned back on the rope, using all her weight. The curtain still didn't move.

To the right of Umi, Teana slapped a hand over her face.

"Guys!" Kotori called out, standing next to an uncovered box of switches on the far right wall. "I think I found the way to pull it up!" She flicked a plastic switch which immediately lit up red, and the curtain started to draw straight up.

"Look!" Subaru called out from the stage, still pulling. "Haha, I told you if I just tried harder it would work…Uwah!" The rope had knotted around her foot and yanked her off the ground until she was dangling in the air completely upside down. She yelped in surprise.

The other members of u's stood agape, their eyes wide. "A little help?" Subaru called out. No one replied.

"You have got to be kidding me…" Teana mumbled.

"They're zebra striped…" Shizuka turned away and blushed.

"What are you all staring at? Get me down from here!" Subaru cried, indignant.

Kotori had also gone as red as all the other girls but Teana were. "Um, Subaru-chan…" she called out. "Look up…"

Subaru, dangling by her feet, looked up to see that her skirt had flipped inside out, and her zebra pattern panties were on display for every other member of u's to see.

 _Oh no, she's an exhibitionist too…_ Umi thought.

"Aaaaaaaaah!" Subaru cried, thrashing about. "Get me down! Get me down!"

"Where's the off switch?" Kotori, at the circuit box, said. "I think this is-"

Immediately after she flipped the switch, the lights went completely off in the auditorium.

That's not it.

Kotori immediately fiddled around for the switch. "There it is…Eh?" A spotlight cast from the upper balcony directly onto Subaru's exposed underwear.

Subaru flailed and screamed "Get me down from here!" louder.

"Oh! This one! I got it!" Kotori exclaimed, flicking another switch on. The curtain finally began to lower. As it did, the rope suddenly lost its tension and unfurled, sending Subaru crashing to the stage headfirst. "Ow…" she moaned, clutching the back of her neck.

"Are you okay?" Kotori asked, running up to her friend. "That looked embarrassing."

Subaru flushed once again. "Why were you looking for so long? You guys are perverts!"

"You're the one who flashed everybody!" Teana yelled back.

Caro was still bright red and covering her mouth. "Zebra striped…I saw Subaru-chan's…"

Thankfully, they soon calmed down (although Subaru was still extremely embarrassed), changed into more comfortable clothes, and brought the supplies out from the back of the stage, and all six girls busied themselves with making the final preparations for the concert. In a couple of hours, the stage was decorated with blue and green streamers, the spotlights cast a blue bubble effect onto the back, and the banner that Kotori and Subaru had painted was being hoisted up.

"Whew!" Subaru exclaimed, wiping her forehead with the forearm of the hand that still held her brush with ink on it. She was covered with black streaks from head to toe. "That was more fun than I thought!"

"It looks so cute!" Kotori added.

At that moment, the auditorium door burst open, and a familiar red-headed first year walked in, drinking from a can. She was nonchalantly looking around for something and didn't seem to notice the group at all.

"Oiiiiiiiiiii! Maki-chaaaaaaaaaan!" Honoka cried out from the stage. Her energy seemed to be back.

The first-year immediately spit out her drink. "What do you want?!"

"Nishikino-san?" Caro asked to herself. Subaru and Teana exchanged looks.

"You want to help us decorate the stage?" Honoka yelled.

"I'd rather hug a cactus."

 _Maki? Is that the one Caro keeps going on and on about?_ Teana thought to Subaru.

 _I don't know what Caro thinks is so great about her_ , Subaru replied. _She seems like she's got an attitude to me._

"What are you doing here anyways?" Caro asked.

"I left my umbrella in here, so I'm getting it," Maki huffed.

"What do you think of our decorations? We went for an ocean theme!" Honoka called out.

The first-year sighed. "You misspelled 'first live'." She pointed to the banner.

"Eh," Subaru blinked. "I guess I didn't notice that…" Teana shot her another look.

Maki's finger went to the right side of the banner. "What's that supposed to be? A camel with allergies?"

"It's Alpaca-san!" Kotori smiled. "Isn't he cute?"

"Um, you do know alpacas don't live underwater…"

"Alpaca-san does! He lives in his underwater lair, and whenever he hears a distress cry he takes off to go all around the world to fight crime!"

Maki blinked once with an expression of confusion, then went and grabbed her umbrella from a seat and whirled around. "I'm leaving."

"No, wait!" Honoka cried. "We didn't even get to show you the lighting-"

The door slammed behind the redhead.

"And I thought she was interested in it, too," Honoka sighed dejectedly.

"Do you know her?" Umi asked. "She was kind of rude."

"Maki Nishikino from class 1-1. She was the one who composed the track to our song!"

"Why would she do that if she doesn't like you?"

"Eh…" Honoka scratched her head.

"Nishikino?" Kotori piped up. "Like that big hospital in Setagaya?"

"Ooh, no way! That's her family? I bet she's loaded!"

The TSAB mages had absolutely no idea where this building was or what it looked like, so they just nodded.

"You guys can redo the banner. Can I just go home? I'm too tired to pass out flyers."

"Aww, bummer…" Kotori said, downcast. "I was planning for us all to go to Homura afterwards and get red bean bread as a reward for our work…"

"Fine," Umi harrumphed. "You talked me into it. But hurry it up."

* * *

The day they arrived on Earth, dressing in costumes and singing would have been the last thing the TSAB agents would have expected to do. But it was keeping them in close proximity to three very important targets; it was a very good cover for the three mages to pretty much stalk and investigate the second-years.

It was curious, though, just what they were supposed to investigate. Fate had told them nothing other than to find the sources of the huge magical reactions that had occurred in the area, but there were no signals with the magnitude of fifteen years ago, and truth be told, they didn't have much to go on. Sure, Subaru and Teana's three classmates were giving off high magical pulses sometimes, but that didn't mean much. There had to be billions of humans with magical potential in all dimensions. Just because their classmates were magic-positive didn't mean they were the source of the reactions. There were probably at least ten more girls that were positive at just the school, let alone the entire city.

So devoting so much energy to these targets was a risk, but it was the best lead Subaru, Teana, and Caro could follow. And to Teana, the three girls just seemed to stand out. It was like they were all projecting their auras unconsciously; she had heard back in training that only those with incredible capability could manifest an aura without trying.

Even most mages couldn't do that. She had no idea if that was correct at all, though. All she and her squadmates could do was be confident in their guess that the girls they had befriended had something to do with the reactions.

Perhaps it was this confidence that led the mages to backstage in the school auditorium, being shown their costumes that they were going to wear by a very enthusiastic mousy-haired girl.

"…and the whole reason I decided on polyester is it's thinner so it radiates heat easier. I think it would be cool if I could put water cooling in them, but that might be a little uncomfortable…" Kotori mused.

"Those are awesome!" Honoka exclaimed, craning her head around like a chicken eating corn. "Which one is mine? Which one is mine?"

"This one." Kotori held out a pastel red costume.

"Kotori-chan, you're the best!" Honoka crowed, grabbing her costume and whirling around with it. "I knew you would do a great job!"

"Now this one is for Shizuka-chan-" Kotori held out the same costume, but in pink instead of red. "Don't worry, it'll fit. I custom-tailored it for you. The gym teacher sure is a big help when it comes to measurements."

Caro made a squeak halfway between joy and surprise and took her costume.

They were very well-crafted, Teana had to admit, far better than what she'd expect from a high schooler. The costumes resembled a vintage airline stewardess's outfit, only sleeveless and with long gloves and socks. A bow adorned the front, and the pastel costume was trimmed in bold color. It was simplistic, yet noticeable.

"-Hibiki-chan? I said yours is this one…" Kotori's voice brought Teana out of her daydream.

"Eh? Oh, thanks," she replied. It was purple; it wasn't her favorite color but it wasn't bad.

"For Subaru-chan-" Kotori held out a yellow costume, which Subaru took with an expression of disappointment.

"No fair, I wanted to be blue…"

"The blue is Umi-chan's favorite color," Kotori retorted. "And the green one is mine. You guys have enough time to change, but don't take too long, okay?"

When Teana had finished sliding the final lavender glove over her right arm and made her way back to the stage, most of the other members of u's were already dressed.

Only Umi was still changing. In their costumes, they really looked like a real idol group. It was a little surprising.

"I've never worn anything like this before…" Caro commented softly. Teana noticed that Kotori had even matched the color of the highlighting to the color of the little mage's hair.

"It's fine. You look cute in it," Teana commented, patting her junior on the head. Caro smiled.

"Nothing about me?" Subaru asked flatly. Her yellow costume was probably the brightest of them all. Teana thought it made her look a little like a freshly-picked banana.

"Um, it's okay, I guess."

Subaru huffed. Beside her, Honoka checked out her costume as intently as a caveman discovering fire, and Kotori was straightening her hair in the mirror.

The door from the changing rooms opened, and a pale blue stocking slowly peeked itself through, followed by long hair, downcast amber eyes, and a face flushed red.

"Umi-chan, what are you doing?" Honoka asked. "It's only five minutes to go."

The archery club member stepped into full view, her legs so close together they might as well be joined, desperately but unsuccessfully attempting to pull her skirt down over her knees. "Look at this! You never told me it would be this short!"

Shouldn't you have noticed that before you put it on?

She tugged a few more times to no avail. "I can't go out there looking like this! I'm showing too much leg!"

"Why's that a bad thing?" Honoka piped up. "You have nice legs."

Umi's eyes widened.

"Yeah!" Subaru added. "You should be proud of them. They're better than Kotori's stick legs and Honoka's flabby ones!"

Umi went even more red.

"What- It's not my fault I like to eat!" Honoka wailed.

"You guys are making it worse," Teana sighed.

Before any of the idiot brigade could object, a member of the Broadcasting Club who had volunteered to man the stage ran in. "You've got two minutes, Kosaka-senpai. Good luck!" She gave a thumbs-up before leaving as fast as she came.

"All right! Places, everyone!" Honoka yelled, pumping a fist in the air.

"Wait! Don't idols do a cheer before they perform? I saw Morning Musume doing it on TV," Kotori chirped.

"Sounds like a good idea…" Caro commented.

"All right, huddle up! How about we count off? Left to right, I'll be first!" The others nodded in agreement.

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

"Four!"

"Five!"

"Six!"

"All right!" the energetic ginger girl yelled, raising her hand away. "u's…music…START!"

"Eh? You didn't like it?"

"We had no idea what you were going to say," Umi sighed.

As soon as she said that, the curtain began to slowly rise and the shine of a spotlight crept onto the wooden stage. The girls hurried to their positions, forming a sort of pyramid with Honoka at the head. The velvet curtain made its ascent, and u's looked out…to an empty audience. There was absolutely no one in the auditorium besides themselves. All of the first-years were apparently more interested in checking out other clubs.

There was stunned silence from the group for a minute or so. Then Honoka began to sniffle. Teana could notice tears welling up in her eyes. It was understandable; her dreams had pretty much been shattered in the cruelest way.

Then, a faint sound filled the auditorium. It began to resonate until it could clearly be heard: a single pair of hands clapping.

A mousy-looking girl with brown hair and glasses was standing in the highest row, slowly clapping.

Caro gave a start. Honoka noticed, and almost immediately her eyes lit up and she clenched her fist.

She raised her hand, and with that the signal was given to the production booth to play the audio track.

It was sort of a daze for Teana. She was singing, but she wasn't listening to her own voice; instead, it was being lost among the drone of the others. She was moving, but it was like a robot that had the dance steps programmed into her, she had practiced it so much. Lights and noises flashed past; she was concentrated on no one but herself, and everything else was blocked out.

Until the end, where, stuck in her pose, she opened her senses again. It appeared they'd done a good job. There was still no one else in the auditorium but the girl with the first-year ribbon, but she looked to be absolutely delighted. Well, there was actually another one with short orange hair peeking through the doorway that was watching them as well. Teana wondered if she was the only one who had noticed.

Then, pushing past the girl in the doorway, the student council president strode authoritatively into the auditorium, followed by a gaggle of student council members. She made her way to the front of the stage, her ice-blue eyes flashing with cold anger.

"Off the stage, now. You do not have permission to be here; whoever you heard that from obviously lied. And change out of those slutty outfits, they're against dress code."

A couple of the members, especially Subaru and Umi, made visible hisses of displeasure. The president wasn't endearing herself to Teana, that's for sure. Why was she going out of her way just to pick a fight with them? Those types of people annoyed Teana a great deal.

The president paced up and down the floor beneath the stage. "Tell me something. It looked like your little experiment…didn't go as planned." She turned to them again, the faintest hint of a smug grin on her face. "What are you going to do now?"

Then, Honoka spoke out, her voice determined. "We're going to keep going, and one day we're going to be the best! You just wait and see!"

"Oh?" The president smirked. "We'll see about that."

* * *

The door to Fate's room was closed; her Device's holoscreen was out, displaying the events of today's readings. There was pretty much no new data worth noticing, as usual. This investigation was not really getting anywhere, especially since there was a time limit now attached to it.

Bardiche buzzed and its tinny voice announced: "New mail from **NANOHA TAKAMACHI**."

Fate's spirits immediately lifted. She hadn't heard from Nanoha since she left on her mission. Honestly, she was starting to miss her. Sure, she was an Enforcer who worked best on her own. But there was nothing like coming home after work to someone who would cook you dinner and smile at you and cuddle you. She had many people she loved; Nanoha, though, was special.

The message unfurled in front of her face. _How's it going over on Earth? Vivio misses you, too._

The child Fate and Nanoha had taken into their family was also someone Fate cared for a great deal, even though they hadn't known each other for much longer than a year.

Pretty much boring, though the kids have joined an idol group with some of their school friends…I guess that's how they're passing the time? Lol

 _Idols? :o I can't imagine Teana would do that…doesn't really fit her…_

 _Haha, she got talked into it_

 _xD_

 _I would have taken video, but I was busy helping the teachers_

From downstairs, she heard Subaru yelp, "Hey! Give me my cookies back!"

"They're not yours, you didn't buy them," Teana replied.

The girls were acting like their usual selves. It was also cheering Fate up. She wondered how they'd adjust to extended living on a world that was so different from their home, but they seemed to be adapting well.

Suddenly, Bardiche's tinny voice spoke up. "Master. Barrier detected in the location of Sotokanda, distance 5 farthings (local unit 1.5 kilometers). Spell appears to be hostile. Signature matches that detected in conjunction with known criminals Jail Scaglietti and Hilda Braukruz."

Fate's blood immediately ran cold. This was completely unexpected. A Barrier, already put up: that meant one of two things. Either the source of the reactions was revealing itself, or someone had found it before the TSAB had. And if a Barrier was up, that probably meant either a very powerful enemy, or more than one.

She quickly texted out, Gtg, talk to you soon, before flying downstairs and activating her Barrier Jacket. Subaru, who had gotten her cookies back, stared dumbfounded.

"Don't leave the house until I say so!" Fate yelled to the girls. "This is an order!" She stepped out and took off into the sky. Fortunately, it was dark enough for her not to be spotted against the sky. She couldn't waste her mana on a cloaking spell with something like this out.

The journey to the banks of the Kanda River, where concrete boxes packed together, all crowding for space, and a large, dull gray apartment rose to dominate the skyline, only took minutes. As she pulled closer to the ground, Bardiche announced, "Barrier Sync," and the eerie pocket dimension she was all too familiar with, with purple sky and deserted buildings, appeared all around her. With no one else inside, her footsteps echoed almost to infinity.

She pulled up the infrared map from Bardiche's holoscreen. Three heat signatures, a little ways to the right and up a few stories. She reached the spiral staircase of the gray building, a dull, colorless mirror of something that existed in reality. Whoever had shown up on her map was right above.

"Spring Shot," Bardiche announced, and Fate bounded up and over the balcony of the fifth story to see a door ripped off its hinges, and inside, just peeking their heads out over an upturned table, two terrified little girls hugging each other tightly. Behind them, a toddler clung to one of the girls. They looked alike; they had to be siblings. Cautiously, she approached them.

Softening her voice, Fate asked, "Are you okay? Do you know who did this?"

The oldest of the children, who could barely speak in between frightened gasps, said, "We were waiting for Mom and Onee-chan to come home…and then this scary guy showed up…and made everything gray…we were hiding so he couldn't find us…but-"

She broke off. Fate saw the flash of light before she heard it, and she put up her shields just in time for a bolt of blue magic to slam into it, kicking up dust.

Above her, a figure in a rippling black cloak that almost appeared to be made of shadows was hovering in midair. That only made the red mask covering the person's-no, was it even human?-thing's face more striking. The children behind her were hunkering down, not even looking at it.

Fate took a defensive stance and pointed the axe-like head of Bardiche at the hostile. "Time-Space Administration Bureau! Surrender peacefully!"

The figure drew a long, thin saber and swung it, sending a curve of blue flying through the air at Fate, which she blocked again.

"What do you want?" she yelled.

A deep, booming male voice answered her. "You should be able to figure that one out, Enforcer."

"Is it why you tried to harm those kids?"

"The solution to your problem is simpler than you think."

"Give yourself up, now!"

A deep chuckle came back in reply. "I do not wish to fight you, Enforcer. My master has given me the command to retreat. But I will tell you one thing. Remember what you seek; the Star Knights and the Key shall wake."

Fate tried to call out, but immediately both the man and the Barrier had disappeared into thin air, and the sounds of a Tokyo night resumed.

Slowly, the smaller of the two girls crawled out from behind the table. "Is the bad man gone?"

"Bad man! Mean!" the toddler added.

"It's okay," Fate said, bending down to reassure them. "You're safe now."

"Onee-chan told us to stay home, but that man came after us even though we didn't go out," the oldest said shakily.

"You're alright. I have to go now, but you're safe."

"Hey, where did you come from?"

"From space. Keep it a secret, okay?"

Fate took off into the air. As she did, she asked her Device, "Run a check on the apartment."

After a few seconds, Bardiche dutifully replied. "Address is registered to a Kana Sakuraba, born 1976, widow of Koji Yazawa, born 1972, died 2010. Three children from her past marriage, nephew adopted. Oldest daughter is 17. Her name is Nico, she attends Otonokizaka Private Academy…"

 _Otonokizaka. Nico Yazawa. I know that name._

Somehow, the mystery had thickened.

* * *

The man in the black cloak slid out of the shadows onto the rooftop. He wasn't pleased with himself. The house was exactly where he was told the Key would be, but all he found were a bunch of stupid brats. And then the damn TSAB Enforcer showed up…

The mocking voice greeted him as he appeared. "I give you one simple task, Dominic, and you can't even do that?"

"Don't use my name."

"I can use whatever I like. I know that particular Key from school. She's got no friends, always goes straight home, and plays hooky all the time. All you had to do was get in, take her out, grab the Key, and bring it back to me. But you couldn't, could you? You threw up a Barrier and now Fate Testarossa knows about you."

"Fate Testarossa?"

"You didn't think the TSAB would send some low level Naval goon, did you? They've got something very dangerous on their hands. And thanks to you, now they know that we want it."

"I apologize. It will not happen again."

"It's not going to happen again because you're not going to do that again. Playtime is over. I believe we need to start getting serious about this. Call the others here, Dominic. All of them."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

I've been busy with school, so it's been a while since I last updated. I apologize for the delay, and new chapters should follow shortly. I have time to write now!

In this chapter, we finally get some plot progression that isn't related to the original Love Live plot! I noticed that my original story was progressing pretty slowly, so I made sure to include some Fate and some action in this chapter. Thanks for your support and see you soon!

-mrcmc888


	7. The Mouse, the Cat, and the Tiger

**Zenkai no:**

u's first concert didn't exactly go as planned, but they continue to push on even in the face of adversity! But maybe they did have a fan after all?

* * *

"And then this blonde foreigner lady showed up and she could fly and she had a magic wand and she saved us from the bad man! Hey, Onee-chan, are you listening?"

"Kokoa, you're talking nonsense," the girl commented, as she took the dishes up from the breakfast she had prepared for her younger siblings. It was not yet seven in the morning, but her mother had already left for work; it fell on her to take care of the children in her absence. She was nearly seventeen: while it was highly unlikely a girl of her age wouldn't have any chores at all, probably none of them had to basically play mother while being a student at the same time. Nonetheless, she could do it. She wasn't the boldest or the most athletic or the smartest, but what she did have was perseverance.

"No, no, it really happened! Right, Kokoro?"

A second young girl also eating breakfast, with the same jet-black hair as her sister, peered upward and put her finger on her chin, deep in thought. "I kinda remember that, but I think I must have dreamed it. I think that's what it is."

Putting her two younger sisters' plates in the sink, she began to wash them, scrubbing vigorously with the brush. The water was freezing as it splashed on her hands. She didn't mind, though; it helped her wake up.

"Kokoa, you're eight. If you tell that story to your friends at school, do you think they'll believe you?"

The apartment she and her family lived in had a dishwasher, but it had long since given out. Ever since then, they'd had to wash by hand, as they just didn't have enough to get it repaired after the bills came through. She had grown accustomed to cleaning and cooking the old way: hanging laundry out to dry, sweeping the floor, boiling water, and so on. Her mother was a hard worker too...she tried to do all she could to take the stress off her daughter, but she worked two almost full-time jobs, so that usually wasn't an option.

It wasn't the life she wanted to live, or that she expected herself to be living at this point. But it was the life she was stuck with.

When the last dish was cleaned, she looked up at the clock. Seven forty-five; she was right on schedule. She turned around to check for her sisters. Kokoro was still at the table, yawning. Kokoa, though, had already gone into the living room, where the TV was blaring. "Good morning from Gunma Prefecture! Today's Dog of the Day is Miya-chan, a cocker spaniel owned by Mr. Noboru Takemiya! Takemiya-san, can you tell us about some of the things she is trained to do?"

"Turn that off," the girl snapped. "You'll wake up Kotaro." The youngest child and only boy of the family was fast asleep in his crib in his mother's room.

"But Onee-chan..." Kokoa whined.

"No buts," the older sister replied. "You can watch that all day after you get home. Here's your allowance for this week, and that one's for Kokoro." She held out two thousand-yen bills for her sister to take. "Mom says try not to spend it all on food. If you really want to go to McDonald's, she'll take you."

"Onee-chan, don't you spend all your money on clothes and iTunes anyway?" Kokoro said flatly from the kitchen.

"That's different. Since I'm going to be an idol and be famous, I've got to do my research and look my best!"

"But aren't you too old for that?"

"What was that? Do you think your older sister isn't cute enough anymore?" the girl seethed in mock anger, trapping her sister in a headlock and grinding her fist playfully up against Kokoro's head.

"I give! I give, okay? There's nothing wrong with buying every limited edition Morning Musume album the day it comes out!"

"Who's going to be the number one idol in the universe?" The older sister kept at it.

"You are!"

"That's better." She released her hold and patted her sister on the head. "Don't be such a crybaby. I was barely touching you."

The younger girl rubbed her head. "It hurt, though!"

"Fine, then. You have my permission to get me back whenever you feel like it. I'm going to head out in a few minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on your sister."

 _I wish Kokoa was half as responsible as Kokoro._ They weren't too far apart in age, but the slightly older of the sisters was already acting like a mature high schooler while the younger one was completely carefree about everything. The girl was glad she had another responsible sibling to keep her two youngest in line. She couldn't keep an eye on them every second of the day. But even though normally she was polite and studious, Kokoro had a smart mouth sometimes.

 _Well, I know where she gets that from._ She could be that way at times, too. Her mother's family was all like that. Her dad used to say there was nothing like Sakuraba sarcasm.

Her dad...she felt a sudden pang of sadness. Tears were beginning to well up. She bent over, trying her best to stop them.

"Onee-chan, what's wrong?" Kokoa asked from the couch.

"I'm fine," she said hurriedly, trying to cover up the shake in her voice. "I'm heading out," she announced, grabbing her backpack from her room, lined with idol pictures, collector's albums, autographs, merchandise, towels, those light-up sticks you waved...you name it, it was probably in there. She had been collecting those ever since she was a little girl, when she saw them on TV and would announce to her family how much she wanted to be one, would dance around and try to twirl or do a jump and fall on her butt and pout that she couldn't move like those graceful girls could.

She still wanted to be one. She was still singing; it was how she got a performing arts scholarship to her school, after all. But her dream of becoming a famous idol, a household name all around the country, was a little bit out of her reach now. She was graduating this year. If she couldn't make it this year, then she would have to stop. Her family didn't have enough money for college, so she would have to get a job, and then she would truly leave her fantasy behind when she melded once and for all into the real world.

"Have a safe trip, Onee-chan!" her sisters called behind her as she opened the door. A gust of cool wind immediately hit her in the face. She still was wearing her winter uniform in May...it was crazy how cold it still was.

 _Tokyo weather is bipolar. One year it's baking hot in March, the next it's still freezing in July._

She began her journey down the concrete, twisting stairs of her apartment building. The elevator would be crowded with salarymen going to work; she did not want to get caught up in that, sandwiched between two fat, middle-aged people. She was small enough that she might get crushed.

Her skirt was constantly blowing up. The blue plaid was thin, and it didn't help that she lived on the fourth floor. By the time she reached the bottom, her knees were knocking.

She took the time to straighten her hair ties that held two pigtails branching off from the sides of her head. She had been doing it since a magazine article said that guys found it cute. Of course an idol needed to be cute! She at least had the beauty part of being an idol down. People were giving her looks whenever she walked by, she just knew it. She shone.

The bridge spanning the Kanda River, right outside her apartment building, was full of people at this hour; the sun had just risen, making even the sixties-built, solid-concrete, depressingly brutalist structure in which she lived look halfway decent with a backdrop of reds, oranges, and blues. She rubbed her face a little. Why should she care about it being cold, when it was a beautiful day, and the number one idol in the universe needed to share her charm with everyone?

 _All right! Love Idol Nico-chan's super cute day will begin! 3_

* * *

Those second-years were super cool, Hanayo Koizumi thought to herself absentmindedly. It was the middle of class and her math homework was on her desk, but she wasn't paying any particular attention. The thoughts of the second-year idol group that had performed in the auditorium during Club Recruitment day...they were amazing. They sang and they danced and they looked like they were having so much fun, and they even challenged the student council president...she would never have the courage to do something like that.

"Koizumi-san!" The teacher's voice snapped her out of her daydream. "Problem 2!"

"Um...yes!" She stood up suddenly. " _x_ equals 2 on the square root of 3, and _y_ equals 6!"

"Correct," her teacher commented. "Since the length of the hypoteneuse was given, we can use the Cosine Theorem, noting its corresponding angle of 90 degrees, in correlation with the other given angle of 43..." He continued to drone on. Hanayo's mind went back to the concert she had just seen. When she applied for Otonokizaka, she didn't have any idea what she wanted to do. She just decided to go because Rin was there as well. But these girls...they were so amazing, and they were trying to save the school as well...they were everything she wanted to be. She wanted to have something she cared so passionately about and worked so hard towards, just like them. She heard they were going to enter the Love Live, even though they were new to the idol scene and were going up against near-professionals.

But most of all, she felt like she knew them, even though she hadn't met a single one, except for one first-year who was on stage with them. As soon as she saw them, she was transfixed, and they looked so familiar, too. It was almost like deja vu. Was that what it was? She wasn't sure what the term meant, but thought it would apply to something like this.

"Problem number five, Hoshizora-san!" her teacher barked.

"Um, four hundred?" Rin looked up with a sheepish glance on her face as a snicker went around the classroom.

"It's asking for a value between 0 and 360, Hoshizora," the teacher sighed. "Help her out, Takigawa-san."

The small, rosy girl stood from her chair. "Yes, using the given area of the parallelogram, you can solve for the angle by finding the right triangle that makes up the particular corner angle. The answer is 56 degrees."

"Correct. Some of you-" he glared at Rin, "-need to put a little more effort into studying. Problem six, Kashimura-san."

Hanayo was very surprised when she saw Shizuka, and all the exchange students, up on the stage with the second-years. She didn't have any idea that they knew what an idol was in the first place, and Shizuka didn't strike her as the type that would be comfortable going on a stage in front of a bunch of people. But she did, and she danced super great for someone as small and young as her. Their choreographer must have been really skilled.

At that moment, the bell rang. Almost instantly, the girls hopped up from their seats and began to head for the door, or for their clubs. Today was not a cleaning day.

She meandered outside of her room almost like a robot going through its motions. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a bright splash of color, and turned to see a large yellow and blue poster hanging on the first years' bulletin board, saying "Did you enjoy our performance? Come join u's on the rooftop for practice after school every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! All experience levels welcome-be happy and love music!"

Today was Tuesday, so they wouldn't be practicing today, but if she could work up the confidence, she could join them tomorrow...but could she? She was an idol fan, but she never thought she would be one...and what if she messed up? It was so intimidating...

"Whatcha looking at?" A hand hit her on her back, and she made a small noise of surprise before turning around to see her best friend standing there.

"Oh, it's just you, Rin-chan," she sighed.

"Are those the girls who were having that concert during club day last week?" Rin asked, moving her boyish face closer to the poster. "I had to drag you out of there...it was like you were hypnotized. You like idol stuff way too much...wonder if they're gonna have another one? I'll go with you if you need me to."

Rin was everything that Hanayo was not: confident, outgoing, and bold. She never had any fear of messing up or making herself look stupid, it seemed. She was always someone Hanayo had looked up to, ever since she was a kid. Rin would be the fastest girl in their class; Hanayo would trip over her own two feet. Rin would have friends at her desk all the time; Hanayo would be alone. She wondered why Rin had even chosen to be her friend in the first place. She was plain and quiet and unathletic, everything that her best friend wasn't. Yet they had stayed together ever since they were young, and Rin had always been there for her. She didn't know what she would do without her being by her side. When she was around Rin, she was never scared or shy.

"Are you thinking of going to one of their club meetings?" Rin asked, brushing a lock of her short ginger hair to the side.

"Um- Yes! Want to come with me? I'd be happy if you could..." Hanayo asked.

"Nah, I've got practice every day this week. Our first meet is coming up...Coach will be mad if I skip. Besides, I'm not really cut out for that stuff. It's all frilly and cute and girly. You're more that type. I'm glad you found something, though."

"Oh, sorry..." Hanayo commented. So she would have to do it alone. Maybe she wasn't up for it after all...

"No worries, Kayochin!" Rin exclaimed. "I'm happy you found something you want to do. Do your best!" She turned and sprinted down the hallway. "See ya!"

"You too..." Hanayo sighed.

As she turned around and began to walk toward her locker, a small, familiar girl passed her by. She had been wanting to talk to Shizuka all this time, but she seemed almost scared of her and Rin...whenever they wanted to find her it was like she would disappear. But now, she was right in front of her. Today, she had a great chance to work up her confidence!

 _Okay! If I can talk to Takigawa-san, maybe I'll feel good enough to go meet those idol girls!_

"Takigawa-san! Wait up!"

The small girl turned around, looking startled for a second, then relaxed. She was super cute, Hanayo had to admit. Way more than her. She had big round eyes, a small stature like most girls her age, but she acted grown up, which was adorable as could be.

"Hey, Koizumi-san." She looked around, almost nervously. "Is Hoshizora-san with you?"

"No, she's at track practice," Hanayo replied. "I've been meaning to ask something...where do you live?"

"I'm staying with Subaru and Hibiki nearby. I think it's in Uchikanda. How come?"

"Well, Rin and I live close by, so I was just wondering...do you want to walk home together?"

"Don't you live in Azabu, though?"

"Eh? Uh, how do you know that?"

"Hoshizora-san told me. I didn't ask her."

"Um...I mean...I don't really live that close by...do you want to walk with me to the station and..." Hanayo's nervousness had taken full control of her.

 _Crap, crap, crap! I said something awkward again! This always happens to me! Someone please help me! Rin-chan, where are you?_

"Um, sorry. I have something to do today. I'll do it later in the week." She smiled, then turned. "See you, Koizumi-san."

"R-right, you too..." Hanayo replied, deflated. Well, that had been a bust. Looks like she'd be walking home alone today after all. As she began to make her way to the lockers, her foot hit something. She reached down to pick it up. It was a student ID card.

 _Nishikino...Maki?_

The name was all too familiar; the aloof girl that she and Rin had known forever that would never talk to anyone and shoot them death glares and hated people in general. She had been by her house once before. It was big and she was intimidated by it, but that was when she was younger.

If she wanted to improve her confidence so she could stand on the same stage as those girls, a good start would be facing down the challenge that was Maki.

* * *

Five-thirty. Subaru was late.

Teana stood outside the building underneath the shade of an oak tree, looking out absentmindedly over the fields where the soccer, tennis, and track teams were practicing. It sure seemed like it would be fun to go running, but it also seemed like a lot of hard work.

It was almost scarily quiet today. No giant mana flareups, no incidents, no warnings from Fate or anything like that...it seemed almost normal. It was like they were just ordinary schoolgirls from Earth, not the TSAB's finest mages.

Footsteps sounded behind her, and Teana knew who it was before she even turned to look. Her friend came running up, her short hair plastered with sweat to her forehead. "Sorry I'm late..." she puffed.

"I expect it now," Teana deadpanned.

"So are we heading over to Honoka's house today? I got the LINE Umi sent us all, and she reminded me in third period, and this morning, and yesterday night, and..."

"Yeah, that's today. Caro is already over there with Honoka and Kotori. Umi's still at archery practice," Teana replied. She had never been over to anyone's house other than Subaru's. Was it normal to invite club members to your home in this country, or did Honoka and the others just like them so much to treat them like close friends, even though they hadn't known each other for very long? It was a bit flattering if it was the second option, but did Honoka treat every acquaintance like they were her childhood friends? It was tough to figure out. You couldn't read an idiot's mind at all. Teana knew that from experience.

"You told them we had to stay for cleaning, right?" Subaru asked.

"Yeah, I think they know." Teana flicked one of her ponytails around, brushing her shoulder. For some reason, it always helped her calm down. "So anyways, did anyone tell you what we're actually going to do?"

"Uh, no, not really..." Subaru mused. "All the messages just said club meeting...I guess work on putting videos on the website? Somebody said something about posting a music video, and something called Photoshop..."

"What's a Photoshop?"

"I think you buy pictures from it?"

"Why would we need to buy pictures?"

"Ask Umi, not me."

Teana breathed out. She wasn't really social enough to have much experience with going over to other people's houses. She had never even been to a party, and all the people that would be there...But at least Subaru would be there too.

"Did you tell Fate we're going to be over there?" Teana knew the answer was no before she ever finished the question. Subaru didn't even have a chance to begin. Using Cross Mirage, she quickly relayed a message to her superior officer.

 _We're heading over to Honoka's. Be back home at about 8 or 9._

 _I'm just grading papers. Be safe. I'll be home when you get there. Do you want me to make dinner?_

 _No, we'll get something on the way home._

 _Okay. See you then._

Fate had great mothering skills. It was a little strange. She was an Enforcer...she didn't seem like the kind of person who would be proficient in taking care of others. But as soon as they got to Earth, she had started treating them like she was their family. Honestly, to the younger mages, she and Nanoha were like older sisters, not commanders.

"So it's a sweets shop, right?" Subaru could barely contain her excitement. "I can't wait. I bet they have all sorts of goodies!"

"You're like a little kid. They're not going to just give you them for free," Teana harrumphed.

"Well, I guess I could buy them," Subaru replied.

"Do you even have any money?

"Uhhhhhhhhh..." Subaru fished around in her bag, and pulled her hand out proudly. "Nope! Absolutely zero yen!"

"I'm not letting you borrow any." Teana cut her best friend off before she could even open her mouth again.

"But..." Subaru suddenly stopped. "Wow, that girl sure can jump high."

"What are you talking about-" Teana followed Subaru's gaze over to the track, where a flat-chested girl with short red hair in a track uniform was picking herself up after clearing the high jump bar.

"Look, she's going to go again," Subaru commented, and sure enough, the girl trotted back to the line. She bent down, then took off into a sprint, accelerated, accelerated, leapt high into the air...

Wait, something wasn't right. The way she didn't bend her legs deep to jump, the way she arched her back...it was slight enough that any person would never notice. But to a trained mage, it was clear as day.

"Are you thinking..." Teana began.

"...Gravity alter?" Subaru finished.

There was no mistake about it; that girl was using some kind of magic.

 _Cross Mirage, identify_ , she thought, thinking of the track team girl who jumped.

 _Rin Hoshizora, 15,_ her Device replied. _Oldest daughter of Shingo and Minami Hoshizora. One younger brother, 12, named Ryouta. Azabuyama Middle School all-prefecture track champion in high jump and the 400 meters. Public records completed._

A magic-user that appeared to be a native of this world...they'd definitely need to keep an eye on her. Was it possible she was...that "enemy" Fate told them about? It couldn't be. She looked just happy-go-lucky and cheerful.

Then again, you could never trust appearances.

"Let's go!" she heard Subaru call behind her.

"Right," she replied, not paying much attention.

A new piece of the puzzle she had no clue how to solve had revealed itself, and Teana only found herself becoming more and more confused the longer she investigated into the mystery on this small, blue, insignificant planet.

* * *

The house that belonged to the family of Dr. Soichiro Nishikino was huge and modern amidst the Azabu neighborhood. Hanayo wondered how many yen it must cost even for a small part of the property...the number would make her head swim. It was too large even to imagine. She and Rin lived close enough for them to go to the same elementary and middle school as Maki, but they were solidly middle-class. They had no friends from _that_ part of town. The rich kids tended to hang out by themselves...except for Maki. For as long as they had been in the same classes, Hanayo could never recall her even having one close friend.

She thought it must be a lonely existence to be someone like that; she probably had so many nice things and so much interesting stuff she did, and she didn't have anyone to share it with. Then again, maybe she preferred to be alone. Even though she'd never had a friend, it wasn't like she ever looked unhappy about it. She was more peaceful. Serene, almost like the Zen ideal.

She was beginning to get nervous. There was a thing with a video screen on the front...was that something you were supposed to press to get in? She'd never seen that except for maybe a couple times on office buildings. It was too intimidating for her, and what if Maki was mad she was being disturbed?

 _Be still. She will not be angry at you._

Hanayo started. It was like she had heard someone talking to her. She quickly turned around, but no one was there. Was she imagining things, or... _It sounded like my own voice, so it could have just been my mind_ , she thought. But she couldn't recall thinking anything like what she had just been told. She was more worried that Maki would snap at her, and the voice was so clear and resonant, it was almost like someone had said it right into her ear. But there was no one anywhere close to her.

She bent over to press the buzzer. The screen immediately flickered on, and a familiar glare filled the screen. "Who is it?" Maki's piercing voice, although distorted by the speaker, was still easily recognizable.

"Um...uh-it's Hanayo Koizumi from 1-4 and I...uhh...came to return this..." She held out the ID card to the camera, putting her head down and bracing herself for the angry rejection that would surely follow.

But the only reply she heard was, "Oh, I see. Come in."

"Eh?" Hanayo couldn't believe her ears. Maki Nishikino, inviting her into her house just like that?

"Did you hear me? I said you can come in." That snappy tone was more like the Maki she knew.

"Um-okay! Coming!" The gate had already swung open in front of her, and she hurried to the front steps, where the door opened. Her fellow first-year stood in the frame. She was already so tall and mature-looking, nobody would guess she and Hanayo were both in the same grade. She didn't act like a first year, either. Hanayo wished she could be that cool.

"Uhh...I came to return this..." She held out the card.

"Thanks." Maki took it and inspected it nonchalantly. "I'd been looking for this. It would have been a pain to get another one done."

"Okay. I'm glad I could help. I guess I'll go now..." Not wanting to make it any more awkward, Hanayo quickly turned to go down the steps.

A cry of "Wait!" stopped her in her tracks.

She turned back around. "What is it?"

"Do you want some tea?"

"Do I want some what?" There was no way she had heard that correctly. She was never going to get invited into Maki Nishikino's house. Not in a million years.

"I said, do you want some tea?"

"Do you have some?"

"Well, yeah," Maki answered, nervously flicking her eyes away when Hanayo turned back around. "I didn't make it for you, it's just...I made too much and I don't want it to go to waste..."

"Okay." Hanayo edged up the steps and into the house, popping her shoes off before following her host into the foyer. Maki was starting to look a little red. It was the weirdest thing. She thought that the other girl would be angry at her, but instead she was being invited into her house. It was just as that voice said: she must not hate her after all. Was it like that thing: precog- premonition? Was that what she had? It was weird.

The house was decorated attractively, with a wide-open entrance space, a staircase curving from the entrance up to the second floor, where a balcony ringed the main atrium, and lots of sun coming in through the big glass windows. But it didn't look super expensive like she expected a rich girl's residence to look like. Nothing was gold-plated, there was no giant TV and no statues...it was just minimalist and tasteful.

Maki led the way quickly after a left turn into an eating area, where laid out on a dark-varnished oak table were two matching china teacups and two small plates with a couple cake slices each. It certainly didn't look like it was spur-of-the-moment. Maybe...Maki wanted company? No, that didn't seem like her. But still, it made Hanayo wonder...

Maki quickly grabbed a teapot the same eggshell white as the teacups off the pristine granite-coated countertop separating the dining table from the kitchen and poured two cups of steaming, light orange tea before quickly taking a seat. Hanayo edged into her seat, cautiously looking around. She didn't know what to think about this, and she was becoming a little bit nervous instead.

"These look good..." she hesitantly began. "Did you make these?"

"No...I mean wait...I mean I only used a cookbook! They're someone else's recipe!" Maki exclaimed.

"Well, okay," Hanayo replied. Blowing, she took a sip of the tea. It was delicious: full-bodied but not too overpowering, with a hint of orange in the background. "What kind of tea is this?" she asked.

"Assamese Darjeeling," Maki replied immediately.

Hanayo had no idea what those words even meant.

"Nishikino-san, um...That is your actual ID card, right? Not an old one?"

"Yeah, it is. I checked. I don't usually lose it, but anyways...Thanks for finding it." Maki looked away and scratched her head.

"Thank you for having me."

"Hmpf. It's not a big deal."

"Well, I've known you for years and this is the first time I've ever been over to your house..."

"You know I wouldn't let Hoshizora in here if she was being chased by wild animals."

 _That's a little harsh..._ "Why'd you let me in now, though?"

"Because I'm in a good mood, and there's no goofily-grinning flat chest behind you to put me out of it today."

"Well, this is really good...I'm glad you decided to invite me in." With a few more minutes of aimless chatting and eating, they were finished. It was really delicious. It may have just been a recipe, but it was certainly a really well done one.

When she was finished, Hanayo stood, pushing her chair in. "Thank you for the food. Um, I hate to ask, but...where is your bathroom?"

"Down the hall to the right." The red-haired girl pointed.

"Oh, thank you!" Hanayo quickly headed off in that direction and found exactly the room she was looking for. After finishing, she washed her hands, but as she opened the door, she aimlessly looked to the left and something caught her eye.

At the end of the hall was an open door, the sunlight streaming into the room behind it. Hanayo hesitantly edged closer. She knew there was probably nothing interesting in there, and it was rude, but...it just sparked her curiosity. She moved slightly forward, and as she entered her eyes grew wide.

A black grand piano, just like one that would be in a hotel lobby or at a concert, stood in the middle of the room. It must have cost hundreds of thousands of yen, and it was so beautiful. She moved closer to admire it; the light glinted off the surface and formed long sparkles covering the instrument's body. Hesitantly, she reached to brush the ghostly-white ivory keys, offset by the darkest of blacks between them...

"You like that?"

She immediately turned around with a squeak of terror and surprise. Maki stood looking at her.

 _Oh, no! She's going to be mad at me! Please help! Someone, please help me!_

Instead, the statement that came out was bemused. "It's a Yamaha. I got it for my birthday three years ago. People always like to look at it. I don't know what's special about it...it's just a piano."

Just a piano that probably cost more than Hanayo's family's house.

"Um, do you play it?"

"No, I just thought it would make a trendy decoration."

"Oh, I see..."

"It's sarcasm. Of course I play it." Maki huffed out the corner of her mouth.

Hanayo turned around to see a mother-of-pearl embellished drum set in the back corner of the room, and two acoustic guitars, an electric bass, and an electric guitar hung on stands with an amp beneath it. In the other corner stood a string bass and a silver saxophone on its stand. There was a computer on a desk in the corner right near the door with two large monitors. This was so amazing; it was far more instruments in one place that Hanayo could ever dream of.

She edged closer to the guitar. "L-Les Paul?" she squeaked in surprise as she saw the name etched on the head. Hesitantly, she stretched her hands toward it. "C-can I..."

"Yeah, you can touch it. Why are you looking so scared? It's just a guitar."

"B-but it's s-so expensive...won't you be mad if I mess it up?"

"Why would I be mad? I can just get another one."

"Nishikino-san, um, do you have any interest in, um, idols?" Hanayo asked it suddenly, so much so that she almost didn't expect herself to ask.

"You're wanting to join that idol group those second-years have, right?"

"H-how did you know?"

"I saw you staring at the poster. Like, every day. You seemed pretty interested in it."

"Do you know anything about them? Since you're so musically interested and all..."

"Yeah, I do. And I wish I didn't."

"Really? Can you answer something for me?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think they would let me join? I want to, but I don't have the confidence to or anything..."

Maki was taken aback for a second. "You think they're going to hold tryouts and pick the best or something? All you have to do is go up and ask them, and then they won't leave you alone! That one second-year, the ginger one, would not shut up about her idol thing! Every other word out of her mouth is 'concert' or 'idol' or something like that!" She pitched up her voice into an artificially cheerful one. "'Hey Maki-chan! Join u's!' 'Maki-chan, please compose us a song!' 'Maki-chan, idols!' 'Maki-chan, how's the song coming along?' 'Maki-chan, please join us!' 'Maki-chan, Maki-chan, Maki-chan, Maki-chan'...Just shut up!"

Hanayo stopped for a second, surprised by the outburst. "Wait, you...composed a song for them?"

"Yeah. Just one. For their club day concert. They promised me they'd leave me alone after that. How come?"

"That song was amazing!" Hanayo crowed. "I got chills just from listening to it!"

"Eh?" It was Maki's turn to be surprised. "Um, well, I don't know what to say...thanks...I guess...I only made it because I was being stalked, though..."

"I don't get it," Hanayo mused out loud.

"What?" came the short reply.

"Don't you like music?"

"I guess you could say that. It's just a hobby for me. But yeah, I enjoy it."

"Then why don't you want to join their group?" Hanayo asked, cocking her head to the side. "They want you to do it so bad...no one's ever tried to chase after me like that. I love idols. I never imagined I'd be one, though. You could just do it so easily, I'm jealous."

"You and I are different people. Even if I did join...it wouldn't have any point. My entire life is mapped out for me. I'll inherit the hospital my parents run...they've already decided where I'm going to med school. Isn't that stupid? I can't even decide little things like that for myself."

That was true, but...she just really didn't get why Maki wouldn't want to join their group if the second-years were giving her so much attention, even if it had no meaning in the long run. To Hanayo, it would be like a dream come true if someone admired her and was trying to ask her for her talents all the time. She didn't really have any, honestly.

It was things like this that made a fire start to burn in her belly. Sure, she was plain and quiet and the only friend she had was Rin, but she wanted to do something that she could at least feel proud of. All through middle school, she had been completely average. Average in school, average in clubs, average in her social life; completely average. She had gone to Otonokizaka because the counselor had told her it was the best option for her, not because she wanted to go there on her own. Maybe those second-years were like her. Maybe they were completely average, but they were working their hearts out to do something. Even if you weren't good at what you were doing, wasn't that the point? Wasn't trying hard the best feeling you could ever have? Wasn't that good enough? Wasn't that meaningful?

"I don't think it's pointless," Hanayo said, confidently.

"So you've decided, then?" Maki replied.

"Eh...I think so."

"You think so?" Maki replied sharply. "Here you are, telling me what's pointless and what's not, but you haven't even made up your mind for yourself."

"Then I will." The confidence was surging inside of Hanayo, a feeling the girl had never felt in the past. Rin was always the one who stood up for her, spoke for her, defended her. "I'm going to join them."

"Well," Maki smiled a little bit for the first time that Hanayo had seen in a while. "Do your best. I'll support you."

Suddenly, a deep brass chime boomed from outside. "Oh, it's already seven..." Maki thought out loud. "My parents will be home soon."

Hanayo wasn't aware of just how much time she'd spent over at her fellow first-year's house until it hit her. _I had to be back home by 7:30! Oh, crap! My parents are going to be so mad..._ She could picture her mom yelling at her before it even happened. _What do I do? What do I do?_

"Thank you for having me, Nishikino-san!" she exclaimed, before walking as fast as she could without breaking a run toward the door, quickly sliding on her shoes before bursting out the door, not listening to see if the red-haired girl said anything back. Her house was about ten minutes' walk, so it wouldn't be that long, but it was already starting to get dark...her mom would be hyperventilating by now. She was so scared of her only precious daughter being out alone, and whenever her dad would try to talk some sense she would shout him down into silence.

 _Right turn ahead, and then I just have to go until home..._

 _Do not go that way._

Hanayo stopped in surprise, turned around, but saw no one close enough to have said that to her. Was she starting to go crazy, or was there someone seriously talking to her? But if that was the case, why couldn't she see anyone?

"What do...you mean?" she said out loud, quietly. "My home is that way."

 _Do you see those men standing on that corner? If you go that way, you will be mugged. Do not go that way._

Hanayo looked around, and sure enough, a couple seedy-looking guys were just hanging out on the street corner outside the convenience store. The voice seemed to be right.

 _There is something you must do._

"W-what do I do?" she asked, hesitantly.

 _Follow me. Go left, down that street at the light. Turn onto the main road._

Like a puppet, she obediently did what the voice commanded. This was so strange. She was sure she wasn't crazy, but there was a voice in her head...and it was talking to her, telling her to do things...was she okay? Was she really actually crazy and she needed help?

As she turned at the light and crossed the street, now surrounded by the scores of businesspeople coming home from working late, the signboard for the Metro station ahead caught her eye. She had ridden the train every morning to go to school for a while, but...surely the voice didn't want her to go somewhere, right? Was it telling her to run away? If it was just her mind speaking, and not something else, did that mean she wanted to leave?

 _Go into it._

Hanayo stopped for a second, and contemplated standing at the top of the stairs entering the subway. She could just ignore the voice, leave and run back all the way home. But then, would it keep telling her to do this? Would it get angry at her? What would it do? She was frightened. This thing was speaking to her and she had no control over it.

And she was curious about where she was supposed to go. She knew it wasn't smart. She was by herself and could end up all sorts of awful places. But she wanted to know. Maybe that would be the end of her. Still, it was a risk she wanted to take.

She hesitantly put one foot down the stairs and immediately ran down them, bursting into a full run as the people milling out of and into the turnstiles stopped for a second to gape at the schoolgirl running full-blast into the station, not even stopping to swipe her card. By the time she was on the track, she was out of breath.

 _Line one._

That was the platform she had ended up on, and surprisingly a train was just arriving. "This is the Nanboku line to Urawamisono, Urawamisono...Get on for Yotsuya, Shinjuku..." the announcer droned. The train was full, and she was forced to stand up, still breathing heavily as it pulled out of the station. Her phone buzzed in her bag. It was probably her mother. She quickly pulled it out and saw that her fears were confirmed. Texting quickly "Sorry! I have to go meet with someone for club! Be a couple more hours!" she slid her phone back into her bag and grabbed onto the bar as the train accelerated.

 _Get off at the Diet Building station, then take the Marunouchi line for Ikebukuro. Get off at Awajicho. There will be someone waiting for you._

"What?" she said, maybe a bit too loud because several people on the train turned to look. Immediately turning her face down, she shrank, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

She knew it probably wasn't smart to follow this voice blindly, but she did what it said. She got off and changed lines, then rode more stops until hers was announced, exactly as she had been told...

Her legs felt like lead as she swiped her card and began the long, slow climb up the stairs. Where even was she? She'd never been to this station before, and the voice had gone silent...and who was waiting for her like she had been told? Surely it was a good person, right? Right? Her confidence was starting to drain, even though there hadn't been much there in the first place.

As she emerged onto the street from the stairs, she first noticed that it was only twilight. The days were starting to become longer now that it was nearing summer. It was a rather quiet street with bars, restaurants, and stores along each side, although there weren't many people out. She looked around. There wasn't anyone she knew there, so who was the voice talking about?

"Who did you mean-"

Hanayo was cut off by a small squeak as shoes squeaked across the concrete behind her. When she turned around, her eyes grew wide as she took a look at a small, rosy-haired girl, who she recognized as the youngest member of the idol group she had watched days before, in the same uniform as her holding a comically large amount of bottled drinks.

"Takigawa-san?"

Her classmate's eyes were about as round as hers. "Koizumi-san? What are you doing here?"

She didn't know how to explain. "It's a long story...Why do you have all that stuff? Do you need any help?"

"No, I got it," Caro replied with a pained sigh. "I was over at Honoka's house and they ran out of tea, so they wanted me to go to the Family Mart to get some more because the sweets stick in your throat if you don't have anything to wash it down and we played rock-paper-scissors for it and I ended up losing..."

 _Honoka?_ Did she mean... _Is she with the other girls who were in that idol group? Can I...ask them to join there?_

"You're meeting with the rest of u's, right?" she suddenly burst out. "I saw you guys perform at club day in the auditorium, and it was amazing! Can I go back with you? I...I want to meet all of you!"

"Well, sure, that would be ok," Caro replied, propping up the bottles that were in danger of falling. "It's just this way."

With a smile on her face, Hanayo set off. "Thanks!"

"Honoka is going to be so happy we found a fan," Caro said as they walked along the street. "Be careful, though. She's a little bit too in your face about it."

 _Yeah, I bet._ After hearing what Maki had said, she didn't doubt that.

"Is she the redhead?"

"Yeah, the second-year, average height, kinda messy hair. Kotori is the blonde and Umi is the shy one with the long, dark hair. Subaru is the short haired, athletic one, and Hibiki has twintails and is smart. Those last two are my fellow exchange students. You've probably never met them yet, have you? The second- and first-years are on different floors, so I'll have to introduce all of them to you..."

Hanayo didn't show it, but her heart was pounding in her chest. She was elated. She had finally had the courage to do something for herself, and here she was getting ready to meet with the girls she admired...

Then she remembered. The voice. It had told her to come here, and she was about to get to meet u's in person. Maybe they would even let her join.

"Thank you," she whispered.

 _It is no matter._

She perked up. The voice had finally responded. "Why did you help me?"

 _If you saw someone in trouble, would you not do the same?_

"Who are you?"

 _I cannot tell you that. I will be here if you need me, but I must go for now. My duty is finished._

"Koizumi-san?" Caro had stopped and was looking back at her, concerned.

"N-nothing!" Hanayo exclaimed suddenly.

"Okay," Caro replied with a glance, and they continued on.

"Oh, we're here." They had stopped in front of an old-style house. Above it hung the sign _Wagashi HOMURA_. Its front door was closed and the lights were off...this wasn't a house, was it? It was a closed shop.

"Um, is this it?" Hanayo tentatively asked.

Caro pulled a key out of her pocket. "Yeah, Honoka's family runs this shop, and they live in the back...They get all the sweets they like! I'm so jealous of her..." She turned the key in the lock, and the door slid open to reveal all sorts of sugary treats lining shelves and tables, and a counter in the back of the darkened shop beside a curtain through which light was shining. Hanayo followed her classmate through the curtain, and immediately light hit her. She was standing at the bottom of a flight of stairs; to the left of her was a dining room where a TV was playing, and the futons weren't yet out, but there was no one there.

"I'm back!" Caro called up the stairs. Turning to Hanayo, she said, "I'll go up first and tell them you're here. You can just wait a little if you want, or come on up."

"Okay..." Hanayo replied. Caro disappeared up the stairs, and afterwards she heard a door open and murmurs, then nothing again. Taking a minute to steel herself, she began up the stairs. Her elation had given rise to nervousness. What if they didn't want anyone intruding on them.

 _It's okay. It's okay,_ she told herself as she climbed.

There were a series of doors down a hallway, with some open and the lights off and some closed. The closest one to her right was cracked open and had some light streaming through it. Hesitantly, she reached to open it, pulling it so slowly it didn't make a sound, and peered through the crack...

What she saw was a red-haired girl, wearing nothing but a towel, rubbing some sort of green stuff on her face in a bathroom, and she must have jumped a couple feet. She hadn't been seen, but what if she had... _First time meeting them and I walk in on one of them naked...oh god, help me..._

Trying to be quiet as so not to alarm the girl in the bathroom that anyone was outside, she crept toward the next door. This one was also cracked, with light, and she caught voices coming from it. Steadily, she moved closer.

"No way!" a high, energetic voice cried. "Already 25,000 views! And look at the comments... 'You guys are awesome! –Tsukirin', 'That was a great song! I hope you release more! –Daisuke'..."

A higher voice chimed in. "'The girl in the blue is so pretty! –Ayaka', 'This is your first video? You guys have a great future ahead of you! I'll see you at the Tokyo regionals, do your best! –Orange'...wow! We're getting so many good reviews! I'll make sure I link it to our official Love Live page. Thanks for getting it, Umi-chan, you're always so prepared..."

"Actually," a lower voice replied hesitantly, "I didn't even think about getting a recording...one of you did it, right? Thanks, whoever did."

"Huh, it wasn't me..."

"Not me."

"Hibiki-chan, did you do it?"

"Nah, I don't even have a camcorder..."

"Me neither."

"One of you had to have done it. There wasn't anyone there to film besides us."

"Don't remind me of that, Umi-chan!"

"It's the truth, though. No one else was there except for us, and the student council president at the end, but she didn't have a camera, and the VP didn't, either."

"Well, it's not that big of a deal. It's just a lucky accident, really. I'm glad we had so many people watching."

"Someone videotaping us without us knowing and posting it on the internet isn't a big deal?"

"Well, I mean, it helped us..."

"I don't care. I'm finding who it was and chewing them out."

"Maybe it was Jesus!"

There was a silence of a few seconds and what sounded to Hanayo like someone getting slapped.

"Honoka, you're not a Christian."

"So anyways, I met a classmate on the way back, and she was watching you guys at the concert, so she wanted to come say hi. I think she's still downstairs." She recognized the voice trying to steer conversation away as that of the young exchange student.

"There was someone watching us live? What's she like? What's she like? Guys! Maybe she was the one who recorded us all! I've got to tell her thanks!"

"Well, she's kind of shy and nervous, so try not to startle her..."

"We actually have fans! Can you believe it? I'm so happy! I'm so happy!"

"I think we already knew that from everyone watching the video..."

"How do you like this single cover? I'm finished with the rough draft."

"What's that on it?"

"Alpaca-san!"

"What does that have to do with us? Or what the song's about?"

"It's cute and optimistic, like the song!"

"No alpacas."

"Okay...would a cat be better?"

"We are _not_ doing a cat!"

"What's wrong with cats? They're cute!"

"They are not cute! They're vicious!"

"Hehe, Umi-chan, don't be scared of them. That time the cat ran off with your lollipop when you were in kindergarten was a long time ago. So was that time you tripped over that cat and then it hissed at you and scratched you and you cried when-"

"Shut up!"

There were a couple of giggles.

"Ok, so no cat..."

"What about a dolphin?"

"Hmm, I prefer a tiger..."

"A horse?"

"No animals! The song has nothing to do with animals! Just keep our picture on the cover and that's enough!"

"Jeez, Umi-chan, you're no fun..."

They didn't seem so bad. Maybe they would be nice to her. She reached towards the door, intending to push it open and introduce herself-

"Did...you...peek...in...on...me?"

A frightening shadow, eyes blazing with a towel turban and a green mask, stared Hanayo down.

Her scream was loud enough that the whole neighborhood could probably have heard it.

The door flung open. Another fearsome shadow, her long hair radiating out around her, stood blocking out the light. "You heard nothing! NOTHING! Got it?"

The first year didn't answer because she was already out cold.

* * *

 _Next morning_

"Kayochin, what's wrong?" Her best friend stood over Hanayo, peering close with a concerned expression as the mousy first-year rested her chin on her hands over her desk. Her head was throbbing. Last night did not go as she expected. Not that it was a bad thing; in fact, there was something that she was so excited about that she could barely contain herself from jumping up and cheering at the top of her lungs. She just didn't really have the energy to. She hadn't been able to get a wink of sleep last night; the butterflies in her stomach would pound and prick whenever she was drifting off, and the nervous excitement that filled her didn't run out at all.

"Grounded for a week..." she moaned.

"Yowch, that's harsh..." her friend replied.

 _You want me to join? You'd...you'd be happy with it?_

 _Yup, you're perfect!_

The lunch bell rang, and Hanayo, with all the energy she had left, jumped to her feet. It was finally time. Something she wanted to do, a decision she had finally made on her own, without Rin, without her parents, without it being what was expected of her. The opportunity was so close; she just had to reach out and touch it. She could almost feel the happiness as if it was a person, embracing her tightly, filling her with joy. If she was Arthur, then her Sword in the Stone lay ahead of her.

"Kayochin, where are you going? Hey, wait! You left your lunch!" Rin called behind her. She didn't pay any attention. She was so caught up in happiness, she could barely keep from skipping down the hallway.

 _But, I mean...I'm not good at singing. I've never learned to dance before...I'll probably get scared of all the people, and I may mess up a lot...it's just, you're so good...are you really okay with this? I'll just drag you down..._

 _No problem! We're total amateurs too!_

 _Really?_

 _Yeah! Never sang a day in my life until now!_

 _But...do you really want someone with so many issues? Surely you would prefer someone more confident..._

 _No worries! We all have our problems too, like Shizuka-chan was also scared of performing, but she got over it, and me and Kotori-chan were out of shape, but we ended up training..._

 _You didn't mention you were a total pest to all of us, too._

 _Well, I guess. But it's all behind us now!_

"Hey, Kayochin! Wait up!" she heard her friend call behind her. She was running as fast as her legs could take her. As she arrived in the second-year classrooms' hall, she looked around. No familiar faces; they weren't here. She dashed off to her right, heading toward the stairs.

 _So...you're saying you'd be happy if I joined?_

"Koizumi-san!" a familiar voice called from behind her. She stopped and turned around, to see a tall, red-haired girl. "I had something I wanted to tell you..."

"Nishikino-san?" she huffed. She was still in a hurry, but there was time to talk for just a second. It wouldn't hurt anything. "What is it?"

"Remember...uhh, last night, when you told me about how you wanted...more confidence? Well, I thought I'd..." She glanced away and was starting to turn red. "This is just because you returned my ID to me...now we're definitely even, ok? I'll...teach...you...how to be more confident...like when you're in class you always get frightened when called on...it's stuff like that I'll help you fix...I guess...I just wanted you to know if you'd like that..."

"Of course I would! Thanks!"

Maki had gone totally red, almost to the point where Hanayo could swear she could see steam coming out her ears.

 _What kind of question is that?_

Ahead of her, her best friend rounded the corner, skidding to a stop. "There you are, Kayochin! Don't run off- Nishikino!" She pointed her finger at Maki. "Y-you better not be trying to molest her!"

"What looks anything like that here?!" Maki snapped.

"Oh?" Rin smirked. "Is it a confession?"

"Piss off, Hoshizora!"

"Uh-uh! No one gets to kidnap Kayochin on my watch!"

"How- It's not like that! At all!"

At that moment, Hanayo took off up the stairs and to the roof. Pushing the door open, she scanned around; in front of the Tokyo skyline sat several groups of girls, but the only one she was concerned about were the six dead ahead of her, who had all turned to look as she burst out the door.

 _We'd love you to join u's!_

"Kousaka-senpai!" she exclaimed, coming to a stop, standing up tall.

The red-haired second year stood up, her face threatening to break into a giant smile. Behind Hanayo, the door swung open, and two other sets of footsteps came pounding on the roof.

"See? This is all your fault! If you hadn't made her run off..." Rin said, gasping for air as she ran.

"I was trying to talk to her about something important!" Maki fired back. "It wasn't any of your business-" Both of them came to a halt beside the mousy first-year. Maki's mouth was hanging open. "Oh, God..."

"I want to join!" Hanayo yelled. As her voice reverberated to such a degree she had hardly heard, it was as if everything went silent. No one talked. The only sound she heard was the throbbing of her heartbeat in her own ears.

Then, her senior beamed, a huge smile breaking out across her face. "Welcome to u's, Hanayo-chan!" Before she could even reply, a huge mass grabbed her as her senior hugged her by the waist. "You're our first new member! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"Oh, cool! This is what you were so excited about?" Rin exclaimed. "This looks like so much fun! Count me in, too!"

"Eh?" Honoka looked up from the bearhug she was currently trapping Hanayo in. "Uh, okay...who are you again?"

"Rin Hoshizora, the first-year shining star of the track club!" she boasted, pointing right to herself. "Wherever Kayochin goes, I go too!"

Rin was going to be there, too? She was quitting the track team to follow her? Hanayo was so excited and confused, she didn't know what to think.

"More like wherever _I_ go, I can't get away from you..." Maki sighed beside her.

"Oh, Maki-chan! You're here too?" Honoka immediately let Hanayo go. "You want to join, too? I'm so glad! Now we finally have enough for a club!"

"Of course not!" she snapped. "I was just trying to talk to Koizumi-san and then that monkey showed up..."

"Aww...we really want you to, though..."

"I told you I was done with this!"

"But, did you know about the song you composed for our performance? It got posted to the internet and it got a lot of views...I was meaning to find you and tell you, but I never could find you...There's a lot of people who love your song! Look!" She held out her phone, on which Hanayo could see was the YouTube comment section for a video. Maki, looking at it too, took a breath and stepped back.

"Really? This...people liked it that much? I didn't even put much effort into it..."

"Yeah! They loved it! Come join us, Maki-chan! We'd be so happy if we had a song composer even half as good as you!"

"W-well..." Maki was starting to blush again. "I guess...fine! I'll do it! Just so you'll stop annoying me about it!"

"Yay!" Honoka jumped up. "We have a club! We have a club! We've got enough members now!"

Hanayo wasn't really sure what to think. So much had happened over the past two days, she didn't know where to begin.

But as she stood there confidently, the wind at her back, her senior celebrating, she thought she might have finally found where she belonged.

* * *

The club room was dark; the shutters were drawn. If there was enough light, one would be able to see the vast amount of idol DVDs, CDs, and merchandise: autographs, folders, glowsticks, and pretty much everything you could name lining the sides of the room. But the only light, even though it was sunny outside, was coming from the computer where the small third-year girl sat typing.

 _Kureno: Did you see this new group from around Akiba? I think they're pretty good! Who knows, they may even get to the Love Live finals this year!_

 _Traveler: You always are like this when the Love Live is going on...Where's the video?_

 _Kureno: /love-live/group__

 _Aqua: That's actually really good! They may even have a chance to go somewhere this year!_

 _Traveler: u's from Otonokizaka Private Girls' Academy in Kanda...hey, Nico-san, I may be wrong, but I think you said that you go there? Do you know anything about them?_

Idols entering the Love Live at her school? It was news to her. She had wanted to for a while, but she didn't actually think someone else would...

 _They're going to end up just like me. I once put in a song on that exact website, too. Watch them fizzle out after a month._

She clicked on the video and began watching. It started off slow, but picked up...

 _Wait a minute! The costumes are garish, they aren't in sync...the camera quality is terrible! They think they're going to get fan votes like this? They're phoning it in! Like this, they're not even going to make it to the prefectural let alone beat A-RISE!_

It reminded her of a part of her she'd rather forget.

 _Nico: It sucks. The quality's awful, the singing is all off, they can't dance if their lives depended on it..._

 _Kureno: Wow, that's harsh._

 _Nico: What's harsh? I'm just telling the truth. They're never going to get the votes they need to make it into the main tournament putting out crap like that._

 _Kureno: Sorry, I forgot you were the resident idol expert..._

It was true. They only had 65 upvotes and not even a single comment. Sure, they had a lot of views on YouTube, but every talent-show ensemble entering the Love Live always got a lot of views because of counting people who only watched for seconds before turning it off. That meant nothing. They were ranked 3585th in Greater Tokyo alone. How was she expected to sit quietly by as a group as terrible as that represented her school?

Not if she could help it.

She clicked the comment box on their page. Hesitantly, she paused. Was this, perhaps, too harsh of a thing to say? Would it completely break their spirits, and she would be responsible?

No, she knew how harsh this world could be, many times worse than just words. They looked like they had no idea what they were getting into.

She was here to snap them back into reality.

Furiously, her fingers flew across the keyboard.

 _You think you'll make it to the Love Live with that? You don't deserve to be called idols!_

 _Enter_

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

Wow, I know it really has been a long time...sorry for being away for so long! I have had a lot of personal stuff to deal with. I'm going to college in about a month, so I have to get that sorted out, I have to deal with work and family life, too: my dad got remarried recently so my life at home has changed quite a bit. Oh well, life happens and I'm back now.

The length of this chapter is an apology for being gone so long! Hopefully you can stay to read through it. It's the fourth episode (or at least based on it), but I did it almost entirely in Hanayo's perspective. This is a bit of a departure from the norm. Most of my story so far has been on the Nanohaverse girls trying to investigate and see what's up with all the weird stuff going on, but I kept that to a minimum in this chapter. Don't worry, there will definitely be more of them next chapter! Instead, enjoy the slower-paced look from a girl who finds her purpose.

Thank you for sticking with it! I would absentmindedly check my email and see that this story was still getting followers and favorites even though I hadn't updated it in so long...even though I was growing tired of it, you don't know how happy it made me! It was all this that made me decide to keep writing another chapter.

See you soon!

-mrcmc888


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